THE 



WESTERN FARMER 



STOCK QROWER 



BY 

MILTON BRIGGS, 

K E L L G i J IOWA. 



W u>- CnT. 



DAVENPORT: ^ 
DAX, EGBERT, & FIDLAR. 
1873. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, 

By MILTON BRIGGS, 

in tlie Office cf the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



'o^'^^^- 



^ 



I 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Chapter I.— Introductory, ..... 5 

II.— Natural Features of the West, . . 10 

IIII._The Present Condition of the West, . 21 
IV.— Manufactures, . . • .32 
v.— Timber Growing, . • . • .49 
VI.— Fruit Growing, . • • .65 
VII.— Grain Growing, . . • .74 
VIII.— Farming in the Moon, . . .91 
IX.— Diseases of Domestic Animals in the West, 95 
X.— Epidemic and Epizootic Diseases, . • HO 
XI.— Origin of Diseases, . ■ .115 
XII — StocK. Growing in the West, . 134 
XIII.— Stock Growing Continued, . . 137 
XIV.— Stock Growing Continued, . • 170 
XV.— Does Color indicate Quality? . .184 
XVI.— Feeding for Fairs — Pedigreei^ of Short- 
horns, . . • • .189 
XVII.— Essay on Stock Farm, .195 
XVIII.— Sheep Husbandry, • • -203 
Conclusion.— Oak Hill Stock Farm, . • -214 
Useful Tables, . • • • • ^19, 220 
Appendix.— The Wools of the United States, . • 221 



PREFACE. 



IN ajoology for presenting this book to the public in face 
of the fact that the country alreadj' seems to be over sup- 
plied with farm literature, and other advice that is in- 
tended for the amelioration of the condition of the farmer, I 
am, I think, sensible of the fact that the present emergency 
growing out of the embarrassing condition of the western 
farmer demands special attention, and a thorough investiga- 
tion of all the various subjects that have a relative bearing 
upon the prosperity of the farmer, as well as all other indus- 
trial interests, that are tending more or less directly in devel- 
oping the material wealth of the west, which is lavished in 
unstinted measure in a normal condition, for the future growth 
of a vigorous and powerful nation. A sudden hegira of peo- 
ple from all civilized nations of the earth, suddenly precip- 
itated upon the vast alluvial plains of the west, under new 
conditions of life, arising from different elements of soil, a 
changed condition of climate, and new commercial relations 
to the markets of the world, renders the condition of western 
life experimental and transient, as well as all the various in- 
dustries connected with its development and prosperity, un- 
certain and conditional as +o successful results. In adapting 
all these various elements of national civilization, that have 
each a peculiarity of its own, to this new condition of life, new 
ideas, new practices, and new systems of doing business, are 
necessarily demanded, that will tend to ignore many of the 
established principles of older states and older countries. 

While our country is abundantly supplied with farm litera- 
ture, it must be a recognized fact, that the larger portion of it 
has a special adaptation that is peculiar to the older states, 
and not applicable to the western prairie. It is also a fact that 
a large portion of our western farm literature originates from 



4 PREFACE. 

a source necessarily impractical, abounding in theories but 
wanting in practical value. Successful practical results form 
the essence of scientific farming. Agricultural writers all over 
the country, such as never scented the new mown hay under 
a July sun, or had any appreciation of the real facts connected 
with faim life, are constantly sowing broad cast, many theories 
unfounded in fact or practical experience. It is with this un- 
derstanding of the case that I attempt in this small volume to 
give some few facts that have at different times been suggested 
to my mind, from my own i)ractical experience and connection 
with farm life, for the last twenty -five years, sixteen of which 
I have spent in the state of Iowa, and during the time taken 
cognizance of all the various interests in connection with the 
development of the country. And while I feel a great reluc- 
tance in presenting this volume to the scrutiny of an appre- 
ciating public, through a mistrust of my own ability to do jus- 
tice to the various subjects herein treated of, I yet have faith 
to believe that it contains many facts of much value to the 
reader to whom it is addressed, and more especially to the in- 
experienced farmer of the prairie country. The fact of this 
work being prepared in the few intervals of time occasionally 
snatched from the active duties of a large farm that necessa- 
rily requires my whole time and attention, will account for its 
fragmentary and incomplete form. As much of this book is 
composed of articles previously designed for newspaper arti- 
cles only, and essays on difterent subjects designed only for 
publication in our state agricultural reports, a repetition of va- 
rious facts and arguments will necessarily occur that might 
otherwise have been avoided. While perhaps a portion of this 
work might be considered well adapted to the common reader, 
it is more especially devoted to that cause and avocation 
which at the present time, especially in the west, stands beg- 
ging at the back door of commerce, while nearly all other in- 
terests enter in at the front door, and receive full protection 
that guarantees their prosperity. In the ideas herein pre- 
sented that are deductions from the so called sciences, I have 
taken special pains to divest them of all technicalities and 
clothe them in such language as will make them easily com- 
prehended by any one of ordinary education. 

BY THE AUTHOR. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



NEW facts and discoveries in physical nature 
which are constantly opening up new fields 
of thought and investigation, tend to develope new 
theories, new systems of education, and new princi- 
ples of hygenic practice. The natural tendency of 
the conservative mind of man, is to run in a rut; 
in the beaten path that so clearly proves the saying 
that every man is only a quotation of some other 
man; and ideas however obsolete they may be, are 
entertained in opposition to established facts. The 
isolated farmer in his tread-mill round of duties is 
more essentially under a cloud of darkness through 
the respect of ideas and practices of a by-gone age, 
than any other class of people. The position of the 
farmer in the absence of any system of organization 
among the masses, is one easily taken advantage of 
by combinations of capital that are at all times tend- 
ing to impoverish the farmer and reduce the avoca- 
tion to one of mere drudgery, and dependence upon 
what seems to be a higher power, that holds in serf- 
dom and bondage the very life of the farmer. This 
condition of the farmer should not and need not ex- 
ist. The farmer, especially in this country that is 



6 THE WESTERN FARMER 

famous for the universal spread of literature among 
the masses, has ready at hand all available means 
furnished for the amelioration of his condition, if 
such means are only made available. 

The farming class are in the majority and have 
the requisite power in their hands to elevate their 
position in the scale of humanity, if that power is 
properly brought to bear in their own behalf. But 
so long as our legislatures are made up of men select- 
ed from the professions of other callings in life, that 
naturally tend to alienate their minds from the in- 
dustrial classes, they by a common principle of na- 
ture having no sympathy in common with the far- 
mer, cannot be expected to do justice to the farmer. 
Their own aggrandizement is the idea uppermost in 
their minds, while any claims that the farming com- 
munity or industrial classes may have upon their 
attention, are very carelessly investigated, or entire- 
ly ignored for the benefit of monied monopolies 
that are in constant attendance during their sessions 
holding out various temptations of reward for spe- 
cial as well as general enactments in their favor. 
Under this condition of things the former is called 
upon to foot the bills, that other interests may rejoice 
in the sunshine of prosperity. 

While this is a fact in connection with our state 
legislatures to a greater or less extent, it is an estab- 
lished principle of our national legislature. The 
many monied corporations that are gradually but 
surely advancing and extending their power over 
the country, are all well calculated to control the 
various branches of our civil government, in their 



AND STOCK GROWER. 7 

behalf and prosperity, and thus place the heel of 
despotism upon the industrial classes, and more 
especially the agriculturist. It is through concert 
of action only on the part of the farming portion of 
the American people, that any obstacle can be inter- 
posed to the progress of corporate and individual 
aggrandizement of monied progress, to the detri- 
ment and enslavement of the masses. This princi- 
ple pertaining to the government of all nations, in 
all ages, is more especially becoming notorious in 
the civil and political policy of the American gov- 
ernment in the last few years. 

And while this principle is fast gaining a foot- 
hold in our civil government, it is a principle at all 
times existing independent of any political party 
that may happen to have the ascendency in the na- 
tion. Political revolutions while held out by the 
demagogue, the office seeker, and the outs that want 
to get in, as the true panacea for all the evils that 
are apparently made to exist; is always a dangerous 
expedient, and not usually attended with any 
promised good results. The inherent principle of 
all governments, from that of the most primeval or 
pairiarchal through the most simple form of district, 
to that of township, county, state, and national, is a 
natural tendency to usurp authority bythe strong 
over the weak, the wise over the ignorant. This 
principle of constant usurpation of power is the 
Alpha and Omega of all the sins connected with all 
forms of government. 

The farmer, all-powerful in his natural position in 
the scale of humanity, is without power, without 



» THE WESTERN FARMER 

protection, and without his due measure of justice, 
for- want of proper concentration of forces, for want 
of proper organization, and directness in effort, and 
for want of a proper realization of the natural ad- 
vantages given him. 

Less hard labor bodily, and more thought, more 
discipline of the mind, more concert of action, a 
higher social position in community, more time spent 
in reading and investigation of all subjects and 
sciences pertaining to his calling, should be the mot- 
to of every farmer as well as mechanic and artisan. 
In this lies the road to his success and prosperity. 
On the farm is the true laboratory for the develop- 
ment of mind in man. It is here that nearly all 
prominent men in the world have had their earlier 
training, that was so necessary for the development 
of iTiind and body, that gave them powder for future 
usefulness in the world. It is here that the mind, 
bod}'', and habits of youth, are given a healthy de- 
velopment, untrammeled and undefiled by the many 
pernicious practices and conventionalisms pertaining 
to a village or city life. While the natural butterfly 
of the country amuses the child, with no contam- 
inating influences, the fashionable butterfly of the 
village or city is developed from a moth that eats at 
the very vitals of social life, and imparts a poison to 
all surrounding social life. This moth of false pride 
:find8 its home in the families of farmers occasion- 
ally, much to their detriment in prosperity, and is 
fostered by shallow minded people in all callings in 
life. Although the invention of machinery has 
done much to ameliorate the condition of the farmer 



J 



AND STOCK GROWER. 9' 

in the past few years, and promises much in the fu- 
ture, still the axioms of Dr. Franklin in his day are 
just as applicable to the present age and condition 
of the farmer, " lie by the plow to thrive, must 
himself either hold or drive." lie must be there. 
Eternal vigilance, constant care and watchfulness,, 
temperate habits, persevering industry, close econo- 
my of time, as well as money, a constant and faith- 
ful working for some delinite object, with some pre- 
conceived plan of operations, and a faithful atten- 
tion to all the details necessary for a final success, 
are some of the principles that are essential to pros- 
perity in farming, as well as other callings in life. 
1^0 farmer can afford to grope along in ignorance, 
or do without two or three good agricultural papers. 
While there is much that is written in these papers 
of little or no value, there is at the same time much 
that is of great value, even to the most intelligent 
and experienced farmer, and it frequently occurs 
that the value of one little article to the farmer will 
more than pay the subscription price of the paper. 



10 THE WESTERN FARMER 



CHAPTER II. 

NATURAL FEATURES OF THE WEST. 

THE continent is born of the sea. In tlie grand 
systems of evolution and change constantly 
going on in connection with the earth's surface, is 
manifested the active life principle of all terres- 
trial matter. The development of vegetable life 
from the most simple organic structure to that of a 
higher order in plant life, which culminates in the 
stately forest tree ; the development of animal life 
in the ocean bed, from the lowest organic structure 
of the molusk up through the various forms of 
crustaceous life, to that of the whale ; and the de- 
velopment of the higher order of animal life from 
the creeping land insect up through the great chain 
that culminates in man, are all characteristic of the 
vital principle of the earth's changing conditions. 

The bed of the sea furnishes a grand laboratory 
of organic life, which by the accumulation and de- 
posit of crustaceous animal matter with mineral sub- 
stances that are so blended as to form a basis of 
a higher order of life that obtains on the future con- 
tinent. Through countless ages this accumulation 
in the ocean's bed is carried on through an estab- 
lished law. Hence we find in the soil so elaborated 



AND STOCK GROWER. 11 

from the ocean's bed to form the basis of a conti- 
nent, different formations that have each a special 
adaptation to vegetable as well as animal life. The 
drift formations of our continent we find better 
adapted to a higher order of vegetable life, and are 
more generally characterized by the growth of tim- 
ber. Animal life in a normal condition obtains a 
higher development on the drift formations, from 
the fact of more congenial elements of the soil. The 
finer or lower sedimentary deposits being more sim- 
ple in their nature, have their natural adaptation to 
a more simple form of vegetable life, and are usually 
characterized by the absence of timber. It is di- 
rectly with these two formations that we have to 
deal, in sho^ving up the natural adaptability of the 
western prairie. The whole formation of the prai- 
rie country of the west, writes plainly and legibly 
the fact, that at no very far distant period of the 
earth's existence this whole country was in a condi- 
tion of entire submergence. Aside from the bould- 
ers of granite rock that were detached from their 
native beds in the volcanic regions of the north and 
west, and carried by the ever moving iceberg, al- 
ways tending to a warmer climate,' and depositing 
on its way whatever of solid matter, as appendages, 
that it may have carried with it, there is no forma- 
tion but that characterized as sedimentary^, which 
forms the basis of the soil of the great Mississippi 
valley. The limestone formations in this whole 
country are all characterized by the evidence of a 
common crustaceous origin, while the few sandstone 
deposits, limited to the more elevated or drift form- 



12 THE WESTERN FARMER 

ation, are all characterized by the simple deposit of 
sand, usually in horizontal strata. The absence of 
timber on the great plains of the west, is doubtless 
owing, lirst, to the nature of the soil not being spe- 
cially adapted to timber growth, from its peculiar 
geological composition ; and second, from the fact 
of the newness of the country, it not being devel- 
oped by time through the chemical forces of nature 
that would eventually have iitted it for a higher or- 
der of vegetable life, and encumbered the ground 
with timber instead of the simple form of vegeta- 
ble life, in the character of the wild grass that cov- 
ers the face of the country and renders the scenery 
so monotonous to the traveler. The absence of 
timber on the prairies is by some thought to be 
caused by the dry cHmate of the country. In an- 
swer to such I will refer them to the region of the 
Sierra Nevada mountains, in a climate where about 
one half the rain falls that we get here. In this dry 
climate of California, where the average rain fall is 
iibout eighteen to twenty inches, and no rain for six 
months of every year, a greater growth of timber 
is found on the same area of land than on any 
other portion of the earth's surface. We find on 
the drift formation of the western country, various 
kinds of timber are covering the ground and mak- 
ing an active and healthy growth, and spreading 
from year to year wherever a congenial soil is found. 
The western farmer, by imitating nature and grow- 
ing fruit trees on such land, will be aided in his ef- 
forts and meet with greater success in growing fruit. 
While certain soils of the west seem to be adapted 



AND STOCK GROWER. 13 

to most any kind of timber or frnit trees, other soils 
have their special likings, and interjDose an objection 
at once to the efforts of the tree planter. While 
certain kinds of timber seem to be well adapted to 
all of our prairie soil, and make a healthy growth, 
other kinds will only succeed in certain soils pecu- 
liarly adapted to their nature ; and only by observ- 
ing these different peculiarities of the soil, will the 
farmer make a success in tree planting or fruit 
growing. And while we are in a measure restricted 
in tree planting and fruit growing, by the natural 
elements of soil and climate of the western prairie, 
it is no less a fact that the same principle applies in 
grain raising as well as all other farm crops. While 
one person on a certain quality of land will make 
a success in growing pears or any other kind of 
fruit, he is quite apt to think that another can do 
the same without any regard to the prerequisites of 
success that are found in the soil, but not generally 
understood, even by the successful fruit grower. 
So another in growing a wheat crop is greatly elated 
at a certain success of his own, or some other per- 
son, and invests largely in that crop, often to his 
great loss and disappointment. 

FRUIT GROWING AND TREE PLANTING. 

This subject is one perhaps that demands the at- 
tention of the western farmer as well as horticultu- 
ralist, in advance of any other subject, as connected 
with the general welfare of the people of the west. 
In presenting this subject for investigation, it be- 
2 



14 THE WESTERN FARMER 

comes quite important to have something tangible 
to the mind as a basis to predicate theories and as- 
sertions, otherwise any theories that we may set up 
will only pass as theories, and give no satisfactory 
proof to those seeking this information. In the i 
great versatility of soil and climate pertaining to ' 
the western portions of America, is found a corres- 
ponding versatility in the spontaneous productions 
of the country ; and in the introduction of the vari- 
ous plants, trees and vegetables for cultivation, as 
well as the different domestic animals so necessary 
for the advancement of civilization, as well as the 
support of the various industries of the people, we 
must necessarily observe all these natural conditions 
and elements that will surely control and have a 
material bearing in the success of the agriculturist. 
The best means of opening up this subject in its 
true light, and presenting it to the mind under- 
standingly, are found in the fact that certain sections 
of country under certain conditions of soil and cli- 
mate, are found to produce certain articles, and all 
countries have a limit in their variety of produc- 
^;ions, either naturally or artificially. For a subject 
in contrast we will refer to the Pacific coast, in the 
same latitude of the western states, including Cali- 
fornia and portions of Oregon. As some of my 
readers are supposed to be ignorant of the phenom- 
ena and general appearance of the country, a few 
words by way of description become necessary : 

The first appearance of the country will naturally 
indicate a soil entirely different from th.it of any 
portion east of the Rocky mountains, and presents 



ANI> STOCK GROWER. 15 

the appearance of barrenness, or an almost entire 
absence of organic matter which forms the soil of 
the western prairie. A reddish cast to the soil of the 
whole country denotes the volcanic nature of the 
soil, and during a large portion of the year, for the 
want of seasonable rains, the general appearance of 
the coantry would indicate a vast desert, with no 
signs of vegetable life except in the timber that cov- 
ers the mountains and gives relief to the monotony, 
by its evergreen foliage. This whole country, ex- 
tending east to the Rocky mountains, a distance of 
about one thousand miles, is all of very nearly the 
same appearance and same character, denoting vol- 
canic agency in its upheaval into mountain peaks 
and mountain ranges, with now and then a narrow 
strip of land in the shape of river bottom, that 
winds around between the mountains. These river 
bottoms of alluvial soil that have been formed 
from the decay and decomposition of the rock of 
the mountain, and generally impregnated with alka- 
line substances as well as various mineral matter 
that gives the soil a strong mineral basis, are found 
to be the richest soils, probably, on the globe. But 
that word " rich," when applied to soils, has only a 
relative signification. . While these volcanic soils are 
rich, it is usually in the elements of various min 
erals of which it is composed, and almost destitute 
of organic matter. Where sufficient moisture can 
be obtained to produce a crop, no country in the 
world can grow a more abundant crop. But as the 
arable portion of the country is quite limited, and 
consists of these alluvial soils, or what might be 



16 THE WESTERN FARMER 

called drift soils, the larger portion of the country 
is not capable of producing vegetation, except in the 
form of the vast forest trees that usually cover the 
mountains, and throw their roots down to the bed 
rock for sustenance and moisture. In noticing the 
adaptation of this mineral or volcanic soil of Cali- 
fornia, we find it peculiarly adapted to all kinds of 
fruit trees, and the staple crop of the country natu- 
rally consists of fruit, which is grown with so little 
care that it becomes almost a spontaneous product 
of the country. In addition to fruit, in such sea- 
sons as the winter rains favor a crop of wheat so 
that it can be advanced in its growth through the 
winter and spring, and come to maturity, a full crop 
is produced ; and what is understood by a fullcrop 
is fifty to sixty bushels per acre of a quality that is 
not surpassed anywhere on the globe. But these 
wheat lands are the alluvial lands, and not very ex- 
tensive. Barley is also produced successfully on 
these wheat lands. There are also in California, tule 
lands, so called from their growth of a coarse grass, 
or rush, called tule. These are of the nature of 
swamp lands, bordering the large rivers, which over- 
flow and produce rank vegetation on these low lands, 
and by that means accumulate organic matter, which 
forms a muck soil quite similar to river bottom 
lands on the western prairie. By draining these 
swamp lands at such part of the season as the wa- 
ter becomes low in the rivers, corn is raised, and 
most garden vegetables, such as turnips, cabbage, 
onions, &c. These lands are richer than our west- 
ern bottom lands, from the fact of having the wash 



AND STOCK GROWER, 17 

of mineral matter from the mountains, and conse- 
quently contain a great variety of elements that 
fit them for producing such vegetables as seem like 
Gulliver stories, when we hear the account of them. 
But these lands are only garden patches, compara- 
tively, and not extensive. The remarkable charac- 
ter of the timber in the volcanic regions of the west, 
is again indicative of the basis of the soil. Mostly 
evergreen, but very dense and compact in fibre, and 
comparatively very heavy for its bulk ; the live-oaks 
usually small, dense and compact in fibre, with a 
strength and hardness nearly equal to iron. The 
small undergrowth of various kinds, in the form of 
shrubs, that is found through this mountainous 
country, is hard and brittle, and like the forest trees, 
contain oil and resin as a sap principle, instead of 
water, and for that reason burn more readily when 
green. The scant herbage in the shape of a dwarfed 
wild grass that starts with the winter rains, makes 
feed for stock the latter part of winter and fore part 
of summer, but dries up and becomes dead in the 
latter part of the season. The soil, climate, and 
rich quality of feed of this region, are peculiarly 
adapted to the nature of the merino sheep. It is 
their natural home, and sheep husbandry is the most 
profitable business connected with this country, if 
properly managed. The scarcity of feed requires a 
constant traveling from one place to another, which 
was the original habit of the merino. Some of the 
severe dry seasons have caught the California herds- 
men overstocked, and brought great loss and dis- 
aster to their flocks. 



18 THE WESTERN FARMER 

To return from this mountain scenery to the west- 
ern prairie, and take a retrospective view of this re- 
gion extending for a thousand miles east of the base 
of the Rocky mountains, and about a thousand miles 
north and south, and we behold what was at no far 
distant period of time in the world's history, the 
bed of the sea, which is still unbroken by any up- 
heaval of volcanic action, or other cause, to displace 
the original strata of sedimentary and drift deposits, 
that are the special geological formation of this ex- 
tended garden of the world. The extensive fine 
sand deposits along the eastern base of the Eocky 
mountains indicate the western shore of this body 
of water, and the beating waves of many centuries 
were the means of these extensive fields of sand de- 
posited as drift in contradistinction to the sediment- 
ary formations that characterize the alluvial soil of 
the prairies farther east, or more especially in the 
vicinity of the Mississippi river. 

The gradual receding of the waters southward, as 
this vast country was elevated from the ocean's bed, 
has left the action of the waves plainly delineated in 
the drift deposits so created in various places on the 
western prairie. The receding Avave to the south- 
ward, brought in its train the various rivers that 
have followed in the rear, and which continue to 
drain the country as well as point out the course 
taken by the receding waters. The immense bed 
of sand on the west is being drifted down by the 
muddy waters of the Missouri and its tributaries, 
which, with the aid of the Mississippi, Ohio, and 
other converging streams, are fast filling up the gulf 



AND STOCK GROWER. 19 

below, and constantly adding new territory in the 
form of the drift deposits that constitute the basis of 
a large portion of the southern states. 

This vast field of alluvial soil covering the western 
prairie, is remarkable for the entire absence of any 
volcanic agency that characterizes the whole moun- 
tain regions on the west. In the fact of these two 
extensive fields, composed of a soil wholly unlike 
each other in their constituent elements, of a dififer- 
ent climate, in the same latitude, and all other sur- 
rounding conditions so various, we find a basis for 
illustrating the principle of natural adaptation of 
different soils, and the varying influence of climate, 
that probably cannot be found anywhere else on the 
globe in such entire contrast. 

The high and extended range of the Sierra !N"e. 
vada mountains forms a barrier against the balmy 
breezes of the Pacific, that produces the remarkable 
climate of California. The Rocky mountain range 
on the east forms an equal barrier to the searching 
winds of the western prairie, also the trade winds 
of the south-east, that furnish us our periodical rains 
in spring and fall, and give fertility to the western 
prairie. 

The great interior country of the mountains be- 
tween the Rocky mountain range and the Sierra 
Nevada range, cut olf from either the western winds 
or eastern winds, that carry moisture and furnish 
the rainy season, is unprovided with rain to such an 
extent as to cause almost entire sterility to the soil 
of this region of country. The great distance of 
the western prairie country from any large body of 



20 THE WESTERN FARMER 

water to modify the extremes of heat and cold, 
leaves it subject to these two extremes, which are 
the most remarkable features of the western prairie. 
This vast field of volcanic country on the west, 
limited in its productions as it is, can never support 
a dense population, nor increase her population be- 
yond a certain limit, except by the aid of cheap 
transportation, for the interchange of products with 
their neighbors east of the mountains. On the 
other hand, the immense surplus of agricultural pro- 
ducts that will ever be seeking an outlet from the 
western prairie, can be, with proper facilities for 
transportation, exchanged to some extent, with the 
mountain districts of the west. The great surplus 
of fruit that can be raised in such great variety at 
so little cost and trouble in California, will always 
be seeking a market away from home, and will find 
a market to a greater or less extent among the vast 
population of the western prairie states. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 21 



CHAPTER III. 

THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE WEST. 

IIS" the sudden migration of humanity from the 
countries of Europe, as well as from the Atlantic 
and middle states of the union, to the vast inviting 
fields of the west, so rich in agricultural resources, 
the records of history fail to give us any parallel in 
the past. This vast multitude of people drawn from 
different countries, and from different callings in 
life, to overspread the vast plains of the west, which 
in an early day furnished precedents of what seemed 
to be fortunes, made in one or two years by crop- 
ping and selling surplus crops to incoming settlers, 
at great prices, who were necessarily compelled to 
purchase for immediate wants. The low price of 
land, and the bountiful crops so easily produced, 
were incentives to people of all the older countries 
to emigrate and avail themselves of these great nat- 
ural advantages of sudden wealth so easily acquired. 
With the rise of this vast empire of agriculture, with 
no accompanying loom, anvil, smith, tannery, bat- 
tery, cheese factory, or other mechanical industry, 
the vast products of the country are suddenly found 
to be out of balance. Agricultural products, from 
their general preponderance, are compelled to go 



22 THE WESTERN FARMER 

begging for want of a market. The vast railroad 
systems that have penetrated with most gigantic 
strides throughout the whole western country, open- 
ing up suddenly to settlement and cultivation a vast 
amount of land, and affording market facilities for 
the surplus products of the country. These exten- 
sive railroad systems, fostered by government aid, 
and direct subsidies levied upon the people, have 
prospered and become wealthy by the very system 
of transportation and exchange of commodities with 
distant markets, that is constantly drawing the life 
blood from the farmer, and depleting his natural 
wealth instead of adding to it, 

The railroads, however, are a source of national 
wealth, and have been the means of the sudden de- 
velopment of the country of the west, as well as 
concentrating wealth into cities that have suddenly 
grown up from small paper towns to great marts of 
trade and commerce, and support large numbers in 
great affluence, in the capacity of merchants, com- 
mission men, and other agents, who live on the prof- 
its of the exchange of produce, from the farmers to 
the consumer or manufacturer. This great wealth 
which is aggregating and concentrating into cities 
and villages, comes directly or indirectly from the 
labor of the farmer. The wealth of the farmer does 
not consist in the great amount of his produce, but 
in the purchasing power of his produce. It is this 
fact of sending his produce a long way to market, 
through the hands of a number of middle men, and 
transportation charges, that consume the principal 
value of his produce, and the small margin that is 



AND STOCK GROWER. 23 

left in the shape of profits, is paid out for goods that 
go through the same system of exchange, and come 
to the farmer at twice or three times their cost of 
production. To illustrate : I, this 28th day of Jan- 
uary, A. D. 1873, at the town of Kellogg, in Iowa, 
sell five thousand pounds of wool at fifty-three cents 
per pound, to a traveling agent, who at a safe calcu- 
lation will get five cents per pound commission ; a 
Chicago commission man will probably get another 
five cents; the railroad companies will get another 
five cents; it finally gets to the manufacturer in 
Massachusetts at a cost of sixty-eight cents per 
pound, and is there manufactured into cloth at a 
cost of seventy-five cents to one dollar per yard. 
This cloth goes into the hands of the jobbers at five 
or ten per cent profit, and again into the hands of 
the Chicago wholesale house, at ten per cent profit; 
again into the hands of the local retailer at twenty- 
five per cent profit, and with transportation added 
comes to the farmer at $1.50 to $2.00 per yard. And 
then to cap the climax, we find the cloth instead of 
being the product of the fine, strong staple of me- 
rino wool, is composed of part cotton, part shoddy 
and part wool, of comparatively little value for ser- 
vice on the farm, or any other service. JS'ow, a 
farmer in Iowa, cannot leave his farm and go on a 
pilgrimage of two to three weeks to the Atlantic 
seaboard to market his crop, but is forced to sell at 
home or ship, to some commission man and wait the 
result of sale and return of proceeds, which hardly 
ever proves satisfactory. 

This example here given instead of being an over- 



24 THE WESTERN FARMER 

drawn picture, is a veritable transaction, and illus- 
trates and solves the problem in a great measure, of 
the dependence of the western farmer at the present 
time. Now, while wool can be produced in Iowa at 
fifty cents per pound, and even less, with a fair profit 
to the farmer, provided we could receive cloth in 
return at the cost of manufacturing, say a good arti- 
cle at eighty cents to one dollar per yard, it would 
set the matter all right with us. But to leave the 
article of wool, which can be raised and transported 
to the best advantage of any commodity in the west, 
and come down to that of grain, and we find that 
the average market price at home will not even pay 
current wages for labor for its production, to say 
nothing of the dead capital invested in farm prop- 
erty, and the requisite machinery for carrying on 
business. To leave this part of the subject now and 
refer back to the commencement of the subject. 

With the vast extent of country suddenly opened 
up to agricultural productions, with no home manu- 
factures to correspond and retain a healthy condi- 
tion of the country financially, we are placed in that 
position which seems to forbid any hope of a change 
for the better, until by a natural process of time, 
capital will seek its proper level, and manufactories 
of all the different varieties domanded in the west 
will be established at home, and the exhausting con- 
dition of middle men and transportation charges be 
obviated. 

This healthy condition of a country that naturally 
obtains in time by the proper growth of all recipro- 
cating industries being properly sustained in connec- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 25 

tion with each other, is a feature of all countries of 
a slower growth, and consequently healthier growth, 
but does not pertain to a country of a sudden growth, 
like that of the "great west." The picture of the 
west is young America grown out of his coat and 
pants. But while the bone and sinew, and that of 
the right material is forming, with vigor and power 
it is no presumption to believe that the comely por 
tion, the full dress, the manly strength and intelli 
gence, will supercede the uncouth form of the awk- 
ward youth. But while fate seems to rule the west 
and hold under a cloud of adversity, for an indefi- 
nite number of years to come, the reader will natu- 
rally inquire as to any means of immediate escape 
from our present thraldom, as the indefinite future 
modification of our embarrassing condition would 
seem to be somewhat uncertain and unconditional 
Many of our leading men of the west have been in- 
vestigating the problem that seems to be so promi- 
nently before the people for a solution, as to the 
proper means of improving financially the condition 
of the western farmer. Some of the plans recom- 
mended as promising relief to the west, we will here 
investigate. 

While the price of produce in the eastern mar- 
kets would give the western farmer a living price 
for his grain after paying transportation, there 
seemed to be little disposition to find fault with the 
railroads, and the middle men who handled our sur- 
plus products. But when the condition of the coun- 
try brought a change in the value of such articles 
as the west had usually relied upon for export, so as 



26 THE WESTERN FARMER 

to give no profit above transportation, these items of 
large profits to railroads and middle men, suddenly 
loomed up before the people, and became a source 
of great aggravation. 

Now as to the prospect of relief by a modification 
of freight tarifls, and calling upon our state legisla- 
ture, as well as national government, to put the rail- 
roads upon their good behaviour, as well as to furn- 
ish additional facilities of transportation, something 
can and should be done in that direction. But as 
to a means of immediate and permanent relief, I 
am not disposed to give any very great credit, or 
place very high hopes of good results from such a 
source. The railroads are all worked to their full 
capacity, and additional facilities for transportation 
are demanded. But with these added facilities of 
freight carriage, we should bear in mind that it costs 
money to build railroads and canals, as well as to 
keep them in repair, and running expenses. The 
very idea of freight tarifts is now, and is quite likely 
to continue, the great obstacle to western prosperity 
so long as we depend upon them. The practice of 
raising grain in the west and depending upon a dis- 
tant market, is a suicidal policy, and should be as 
far as possible abandoned. 

While through the present accidental circumstance 
of the failure of crops in France and Great Britain, 
has given an export demand for our surplus wheat 
for two years, and enabled the western farmer to ob- 
tain a barely living price, this market can very sel- 
dom be relied upon, as we export very little wheat 
comparatively, duiing a series of years, and any- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 27 

thing beyond a home market is merely accidental. 
Added to this fact we find also that the wheat crop 
is not one to be depended upon on the western prai- 
ries. The growing of wheat as in the past, will 
doubtless in the future be an uncertain crop — not 
more than one year in three paying more than ex- 
penses in raising. The article of corn will not bear 
transportation any great distance. But as we have 
got to meet this question of transportation and be 
governed by its dictates in the future as in the past, 
let us meet it at the best possible advantage. As 
the reliable and staple products of the west are 
corn, oats and grass, and as these are produced in 
great abundance, with little cost comparatively, the 
idea of concentration into a form that will bear ship- 
ment, presents itself at once. To meet this idea of 
a distant market for our produce, we must concen- 
trate all of our crops into cattle, horses, sheep and 
swine. But many will say this has been tried and 
proved a failure to a great extent; and admitting 
that it has, it is not necessarily so. The leading 
classes of stock can be raised on the prairie of the 
west, with no more care and protection than is re- 
quired in the same latitude in the eastern states, or 
the countries of Europe. In the older states where 
land is much higher than in the west, and less pro- 
ductive in the essentials for gi owing stock, sheep, 
cattle, and swine, are the leading staples from which 
the farmer relies for steady and reliable incomes. 

Allowing the facts that the eastern farmer receives 
a better price for his stock than the western farmer, 
this is more than offset by the larger crops grown 



28 THE AVESTERN FARMER 

in the west, and the dift'erence in expense in pro- 
ducing the same crop. While the western farmer 
can grow corn at twenty cents per bushel on the 
farm, the eastern farmer must have from thirty to 
fifty cents to cover cost. In the state of Ohio, for 
example, corn can be produced at the rate of thirty 
to forty bushels per acre, with a cost of one half 
more labor than is required to raise corn in the west 
that will average fifty to sixty bushels to the acre. 

While cheese is produced on land in Ohio worth 
$60 to $100 per acre, and sold at twelve to thirteen 
cents per pound, with a satisfactory profit, it costs no 
more to produce a pound of cheese in Iowa, where 
land may cost from ten to thirty dollars per acre. 

While pork is produced in Ohio for $4.00 per 
hundred gross, with corn at forty cents per bushel, 
pork is produced in Iowa for $3.00 per hundred on 
corn that can be raised for twenty cents per bushel. 
While sheep are raised in Ohio with a satisfactory 
profit, on land worth $60 fo $100 per acre, and wool 
sold at fifty cents per pound for washed fleece, with 
the comparative price of western land, and the 
cheapness and abundance of feed in the west, wool 
can be produced at twenty-five to thirty cents, with 
the same margin of profit. When wool is sold for 
fifty cents in Ohio, the same article will bring forty- 
seven to forty-eight cents in Iowa, if put into mar- 
ket at its actual value. While fifty cents per pound 
will give a satisfactory price for wool in Ohio, an 
equal success in growing sheep in Iowa with the 
present price of land and produce, will give at least 
three hundred per cent more profit. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 29 

Although the alluvial soil of the westeru prairie 
may not be as well adapted to dairy products as the 
best dairy districts of Ohio and N'ew York, a good 
article of cheese or butter can be produced in the 
west at much less cost per pound than in Ohio or 
New York. 

While the Ohio farmer realizes about one dollar 
more per hundred for beef cattle of the same quality, 
than the Iowa farmer, cattle can be raised in Iowa 
with at least fifty per cent less cost. 

Allowing these propositions to be correct, we have 
here furnished a means of moditying our plan of 
operations, in farming so as to adjust ourselves to 
the surrounding conditions, that seem to control us, 
and at the same time prove that western farming 
will pay. This plan of farming in the west which 
demands a system of feeding our grain and ship- 
ping our produce in a more concentrated form, will 
necessarily have to be adopted in order to meet the 
present emergency of low prices. With the build- 
ing up of the various manufacturing interests in the 
west, our condition financially will be improved 
quite materially, and just in proportion as the vari- 
ous interests are fostered and sustained, in that same 
proportion will we become independent of that de- 
moralizing element, freight tariffs and commission 
men. 

PROTECTING HOME INDUSTRY. 

Under this head we have one of the most impor- 
tant subjects connected with the welfare of the west. 
It is an imperative duty demanded of every farmer 



30 THE WESTERN FARMER 

individually or collectively, to hold out inducements 
to all manufacturing establishments to come among 
us. We should not wait for the wheels of fortune 
to roll round, with the expectation that a favorable 
breeze will bring us wealth and prosperity. The 
gods help those that help themselves. Every man 
is the architect of his own success or failure in life, 
and as it is with the individual, so it is with neigh- 
borhoods or states. While one man sits down wait- 
ing for something to turn up for his benefit, Micaw- 
ber-like, another goes to work and turns up some- 
thing without trusting to any freaks of fortune. 

It is the will to do, and the perseverance to carry 
out, that sets luck aside and pushes right forward to 
success. When one person cannot accomplish much 
comparatively, in any one enterprise, a number of 
persons properly organized can accomplish wonders. 
This word " organization," is the key to the whole 
subject of success and prosperity of the western 
farmer. This is the key that locks up the wealth of 
the country into various forms of monopolies in 
controling freights, controling the price of manufac- 
tured goods, and controling the price of nearly every 
article the farmer produces or consumes. Organiz- 
ation by the farmers of the west becomes necessary 
to counteract the various combinations that are con- 
stantly tending to reduce the avocations of the agri- 
culturist to one of slavery. The fact that the west 
is generally settled up by people of different states 
of the east, as well as foreign countries, and having 
so many different elements among the people, tends 
to an exclusiveness in their social relations, and an 



AND STOCK GKOWER. 31 

indifference as to the welfare of each other. This 
isolation and exclusiveness is also fostered by a dif- 
ference in their sectarian relations, as well as differ- 
ence in political views. The absence of a common 
sympathetic and fraternal feeling among the people, 
arising from these various causes, retards very much 
their welfare, and is a great obstacle to successful 
organizations, that might be effected and result in 
great good to the community at large, in many dif- 
ferent ways. 

Farmers clubs for the discussion of all the various 
subjects connected with farm life, are of great value, 
and should be maintained m every school district, 
especially in the winter season, when the farmers' 
time is usually spent during the evenings with no 
special employment. Not being identiiied with the 
Patrons of Husbandry, I cannot speak knowingly 
of what is expected to be accomplished through that 
order. But from all appearances the plan is right 
and is calculated to result in much good. 

Where the individual alone cannot do much in 
the way of starting manufacturing enterprises, by 
the cooperation of different ones in the same neigh- 
borhood, nearly all the various manufacturing 
branches so essential to the prosperity of the west 
can be introduced and successfully maintained. 
Skilled laborers can be procured in all sections of 
the country where the various manufactures are car- 
ried on, and where wanted can be easily obtained. 



32 THE WESTERN FARMER 



CHAPTER IV. 



MANUFACTURES. 



AMONG the various manufactures that can be 
introduced and established on a paying basis 
for the investment, I note a few that should have 
special attention — and iirst is the cheese factory. 

Every county in the state can at least support one, 
and many counties are so favorably supplied with 
running streams of water as to permit of the larger 
portions of the farms being devoted to pasture, and 
by reason of such favorable conditions can well sup- 
port three or four factories to the county. As to 
the idea of failure or success in cheese manufactur- 
ing in the latitude of Iowa, there no doubt has been 
many failures where an attempt has been made at 
manufacturing. But when we look back upon the 
pathway of human life, we find strewed all along 
the road of human enterprise, wrecks and failures 
upon every side, which denote the incapacity of the 
adventurer in his efforts that have been put forth 
without properly investigating the surrounding con- 
ditions which were necessary to guarantee success. 
Where one party will engage in an enterprise even 
under the most discouraging circumstances, and 
make a complete success, another party will make a 
partial or complete failure. 



AND STOCK GROAVBR. 33 

While many attempts at cheese manufacturing in 
Iowa have made but a partial success, others have 
succeeded in manufacturing a good article of cheese 
and finding ready market at satisfactory prices. 
Having myself been brought up in what is called 
the dairy district of Ohio, and had occasion to in- 
vestigate the subject of the factory system so suc- 
cessfully adopted in northern Ohio, as well as other 
portions of the country, I can speak from some pos- 
itive knowledge of the business. 

While the plan of manufacturing butter and 
cheese by the farmer lone-handed, with a few cows, 
and without proper facilities for any success in pro- 
ducing an article of either butter or cheese that is 
fit for market, the natural result of such a system is 
attended with no pay and no object to the farmer. 

While " western grease," the name given to west- 
ern butter, is worth perhaps ten to fifteen cents in 
market, a good article of factory butter is worth 
thirty to fifty cents per pound, according to the mar- 
ket where the article is sold. Under the present 
practice of keeping the average common cows of 
the country, and selling the few pounds of butter or 
home-made cheese to the retail shops of the coun- 
try, an income of |20 to $25 per cow is a liberal esti- 
mate. The price that is usually realized for milk by 
the farmer in the west where sold to cheese facto- 
ries, is seven to eight cents per gallon. Our com- 
mon cows yielding say thirty to forty pounds of milk 
per day, or three to four gallons for six months, or 
one hundred and eighty days of the year, will give 
for the lowest grade of cows five hundred and forty 



34 THE WESTERN FARMER 

gallons, which at eight cents per gallon is |43.20 for 
the increase of one year. A cow that will give four 
gallons per day for one hundred and eighty days, is 
a good common cow, and tlie result is seven hun- 
dred and twenty gallons for the year, at eight cents 
per gallon, giving $57.60 per cow as increase. 
A good lot of grade short horn cows, as my own ex- 
perience has tested, will give on liberal feed, fifty 
pounds per day, or five gallons, which for one hun- 
dred and eighty days is nine hundred gallons, or an 
income of |72 per year for each cow. 

Now to be safe in these calculations and put the 
income one quarter less for any reasonable decline 
in price, and we have a better income than anything 
now engaged in by the western farmer, considering 
the amount of labor employed and capital invested. 
A farm of eighty acres improved land will furnish 
feed for both summer and winter for twenty-five 
cows, which with a low estimate of $30 income for 
each cow is $750. With forty-five acres in pasture, 
twenty acres in meadow, and ten acres in corn, 
twenty to twenty-five cows and one pair of horses 
can be kept, leaving five acres for timber and or- 
chard. On a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, 
forty to forty-five cows can be kept, with one span 
of horses to do the necessary work, and employ two 
hands to a good advantage. Half as mach ground 
at least should be put into corn as is devoted to 
meadow. The dry seasons so common in the west 
that often prevail so disastrously to the grass crop, 
and become such an obstacle to the success of dairy- 
ing, can be in a great measure met with successfully 



AND STOCK GKOWER. 35 

by the production of a corn crop, which is most al- 
ways reliable in the west. Corn should be sowed in 
drills three and a half feet between rows, so as to 
permit of plowing one way, and the seed of some 
early variety used so as to mature early, and be cut 
up as soon as the grain begins to harden. Cut up 
and throw on the ground in small bunches to cure 
for two to three days, then put into shock for win- 
ter. The object in raising corn for the dairy is the 
fodder, and should be sowed thickly in drills, so as 
to produce a larger amount of feed, which can be 
cut up and fed in the summer in case of drouth, or 
the failure of pasture. In raising fodder in this 
way and soiling, a larger number of cows can be 
fed on a farm both summer and winter, and at the 
same time a full and regular flow of milk be secured 
through the summer. In growing corn for fodder 
a crop is produced that is better adapted to produc- 
ing milk than any other crop. The small ears of 
corn that grow on the stalks will give a better qual- 
ity to the feed and produce more milk when fed 
green than any other feed, and at the same time a 
crop can be yjroduced of eight or ten tons to the 
acre, which will make it a better paying crop, as well 
as surer, than the hay crop. Pastures for dairy pur- 
poses are improved by age and should consist of all 
the different varieties of grass that can be grown 
on the ground. Not all farms can be devoted to 
the dairy with profit, as pure running watc^r on 
the farm is a necessity, and shade of some kind 
must be furnished for stock. 

The high temperature of summer that carries the 



36 THE WESTERN FARMER 

thermometer up to eighty and ninety degrees for 
many days in succession, on the open prairie, is con- 
sidered a great obstacle to success in producing 
cheese. But by the proper construction of curing 
houses and an abundant supply of cold water, which 
is always necessary for the success of a factory, this 
obstacle can be met successfully, and the manufac- 
ture of cheese made a safe and reliable business in 
any portion of the state of Iowa, or any correspond- 
ing latitude in the west. 

As to any danger of the overproduction of cheese 
or the business being overdone, there seems to be 
no such conditions attending this branch of indus- 
try as are common to all other products of the coun- 
try. Twenty-iive years ago, in northern Ohio, 
cheese making by the old fashioned dairy process 
was the most paying business of the farmer, when 
cheese brought six cents per pound in the market at 
wholesale, and farms were worth $25 to $30 per 
acre. It was then feared that the business would 
be overdone and farmers have to resort to some 
other business. But what has been the condition of 
the market since ? Instead of any decline, the price 
of cheese has steadily increased to the present time, 
as compared with other farm products, and as the 
supply has increased the demand has increased in a 
greater ratio, and with no danger of an over sup- 
ply. While the manufacture of cheese seems to be 
limited to a certain latitude, and is more especially 
the business of the Yankee, the product tinds a mar- 
ket in every civilized country on the globe. The 
article of cheese will bear shipment to tropical coun- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 37 

tries, and in a warm climate or in the summer sea- 
son in the north, is a more healthy article of diet 
than meat. From the fact of its containing more 
nutriment in the same bulk than any other article of 
food, it has an advantage over all other farm pro- 
ducts, in shipping to a distant market. A ten-fold 
increase of the product in the next five years would 
doubtless find a ready market with very little de- 
cline in the price. As there can be no increase of 
the product in the eastern states, and the only local- 
ity that will permit of any increase in the product is 
limited to a comparatively small extent of country, 
comprising northern Illinois, Wisconsin, southern 
Minnesota and Iowa, and the demand is quite likely 
to increase with any possible increase of the product, 
we shall doubtless in the future as in the past, no- 
tice the congratulations of success of the manu- 
facturers of the north-west, ^at their annual con- 
ventions. 

While most other branches of farming in the west 
seem to be languishing under the impression of a 
tight money market and low prices, the product of 
cheese finds a ready market at good paying prices, 
and the manufacturer is rejoicing in his prosperity, 
with his money in his pocket, ready to commence 
another year's business, under the most favorable 
prospect of a sure reward for his trouble. The 
manufacture of cheese in the west at the present 
time, under the conditions of soil and climate that 
are new to the operators in the factories, are circum- 
stances that necessarily prove a failure in some 
cases, and hence we find a great portion of the 
4 



38 THE WESTERN FARMER 

cheese that goes into the market of a ver^' tierior 
quality. But as this cheese mostly goes uto the 
hands of Chicago commission men, and is branded 
New York factory, the reputation of the western 
manufacturer is luckily sustained and New York 
takes all the censure. New York factory is doubt- 
less a good brand in some markets, but in the west 
is losing reputation. A little time and experience 
with more skilled laborers, will correct this defect 
without doubt, and by a proper concert of action on 
the part of western manufacturers, the conditions of 
success will be better understood, and Western 
Cheese will be a reliable brand in the market. The 
small amount of cheese that is manufactured in New 
York does not seek a market in the west, but is 
moved in another direction for market, while the 
surplus cheese of the west goes into the hands of the 
consumer under false colors. 

The common wild or prairie grass of the west, is 
of very little value comparatively for dairy produce, 
and as the alluvial soil of the prairie will become 
adapted to tame grasses after being reduced by crop- 
ing a few years, the older countries will have the ad- 
vantage over the new countries in introducing the 
cheese factory. 

The rough and rolling lands of the west will pro- 
duce a richer and better quality of feed, and this 
fact together with the fact of pure water, and more 
running streams on rolling land, gives such locali- 
ties a great advantage over the more level lands for 
grazing purposes. Nearly the whole surface of the 
state of Iowa, from these peculiar natural advanta- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 39 

ges, is well adapted to dairying as well as all kinds 
of stock growing. For want of the tame grasses in 
newly settled portions of the west, a good substitute 
is found in growing rye for pasture. It even has 
advantages over the tame grasses, by producing late 
fall feed and early spring feed, and is well adapted 
to the wants of the dairyman as well as the wool 
grower. By sowing rye in with corn, the last time 
of plowing corn, and harvesting the corn as early as 
practicable, a good pasture is furnished, even into 
winter, for both cows and sheep. This same ground, 
after furnishing early spring feed, can be plowed in 
time for replanting to corn, or can be seeded down 
to clover and timothy, by sowing the seed in Febru- 
ary or March, and good pasture can thus be secured 
for the whole season following ; as the rye is eaten 
off in the spring, the timothy and clover will be com- 
ing on and take its place, and so furnish continuous 
fresh pasture through the season. 

Any essay or writing in detail, on the practical 
business of cheese making under the factory system, 
would be of little value to the novice, as it is only 
practical experience in the business that will qualify 
any one so as to justify him in making an attempt 
at success. And even a practical success in one lo- 
cality does not guarantee a success in a ditferent lo- 
cality, with different material to work with, and dif- 
ferent feed for cows as well as different climate. 
Any parties contemplating the erection of a factory, 
if not skilled in the business, must necessarily visit 
one or more factories and obtain knowledge from 
practical observation and advice of skilled opera- 



40 THE WESTERN FARMER 

tives, as well as employ a skilled and trusty person 
to superintend the erection and starting of a factory. 
The most important matter in connection with the 
subject of the dairy, in order for success and profit, 
is procuring good cows. A cow that will give $50 
per annum as income for milk, will cost no more 
for keeping than oue that will give $25 to $30 in- 
come. While there are some marks and indications 
that will distinguish a good milker, these outward 
signs are not always reliable; and while a light col- 
ored cow will usually give as large quantity' of milk 
as a dark red one, a dark red cow is much more re- 
liable for superior quality of milk, as well as being 
a better constitutioned animal. While we can place 
but little dependence upon our common native cows 
for either quantity or quality of milk, a high grade 
short horn cow is sure to give a good quality of milk, 
and probably a higher average in quantity than any 
other breed. As far as I have observed the testi- 
mony of every one who has experimented on difter- 
ent breeds for dairy purposes, the preference has 
universally been given to the short horn family. A 
dairy composed of grade short horn cows will give 
a uniformity in quality of milk, and much better 
than the average quality of the native cows. While 
short horn cows fed high as show cows are not usu- 
ally tlie most profitable milkers, on the contrary, 
when bred and fed for milk purposes are found to 
be more profitable, from the fact of giving a uni- 
formly good quality of milk, as well as possessing 
an advantage over all other breeds for beef purposes, 
when they are no longer useful for milk. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 4l 

A high grade short horn cow will usually feed ofl 
with more profit for the feed consumed, and usually 
bring the same price as high grade steers in the mar- 
ket, which is one to two cents more per pound than 
the best native stock. Another important advan- 
tage in favor of the short horn cow is found in 
changing from dairying to stock raising, which can 
be done at any time if short horns are bred for the 
dairy. 

In this land of cheap corn, beef must necessarily 
be an item of produce, and if not the leading object 
with the dairyman, it at least will demand a second- 
ary object in producing dairy products in the west. 
In preparing for the dairy in the west, the best na- 
tive cows, or grade short horns should be selected, 
and always bred on full blood short horn bulls. The 
calves of the best milking cows should be raised 
and retained in building up a superior herd of milk- 
ers, to take the place of the older stock, which should 
be sold out or fed off for market, when they are no 
longer profitable as milkers. By this process of 
weeding out and raising only good animals, a herd 
can soon be produced that will be better worth $75 
per head, either as milkers or for stock purposes, 
than our common cows are "worth $30. While en- 
gaged in the business of producing milk for dairy 
purposes, it should always be made a leading idea 
with the farmer to improve his stock at the same 
time. 

The manufacture of sugar from beets has prov- 
ed an extensive branch of industry in France 



42 THE WESTERN FARMER 

and other countries adapted to the growth of the 
sugar beet. No one experiment connected with the 
welfare of California has proved more successful 
than the manufacture of sugar from beets. From 
the experiments made in the state of Illinois in this 
enterprise, it has been practically demonstrated, that 
sugar can be manufacutred from the beet on the 
western prairie for six cents per pound, and a sav- 
ing thereby made to the west that will amount to 
millions of dollars annually. Although there have 
been failures in the attempt at manufacturing beet 
sugar on the prairie, there also have been failures in 
all branches of manufacturing as well hs in other 
industrial enterprises, and in all countries. Success 
in any kind of business we find depends upon a 
proper knowledge of the business, as well as all the 
surrounding circumstances that have a material 
bearing upon that special branch of business. In 
the manufacture of sugar from, beets the most im- 
portant prerequisite of success is found in the local- 
ity of a factory as to quality of soil for growing beets. 
While the prairie soil of the west is well adapted to 
the growth of all the difi'erent varieties of beets, and 
while the yield is found to be equally as great as 
that of any other country, if not greater, there are 
certain facts that govern the quality and sweetness 
of the beet as well as the sorghum plant, that must 
be understood by the manufacturer, in order to se- 
cure success. 

While the beet as well as the sorghum plant will 
make a prolific growth on the deep black alluvial 
soil of the prairie, that is destitute of sand or other 



AND STOCK GROWER. 43 

mineral substance, it will be found that sugar can- 
not be produced from any plant growing in such a 
soil, and hence it is that people differ so much about 
the value of our western sorghum, or sugar cane. 
The more elevated lands of the prairie that have a 
sufficient amount of sand, and other mineral matter, 
and usually on lands where timber or underbrush 
makes a spontaneous growth, the soil will generally 
be found adapted to the production of sugar, either 
from cane or from the beet root. The soil of river 
bottoms in many places is found to be quite sandy 
with gravel sub-soil, and in such places a success can 
be made in the production of sugar from the beet or 
the cane. A soil that is well adapted to growing 
wheat or fruit trees successfully, will be found well 
adapted to the production of such plants as produce 
sugar profitably. 

It is with a proper understanding of these facts 
that the manufacture of sugar from beets can be 
made a success on the western prairie as it has been 
a great success on like soils in other portions of this 
country as well as in Europe. This branch of man- 
ufacturing industry, while it requires a higher order 
of skill and scientific investigation on the part of a 
head foreman or manager, is not subject to the 
same necessity of employing skilled workmen that 
many other branches of manufacturing require. No 
country probably in the world can produce the beet 
80 cheaply as the western prairie, and a larger pro- 
portion of the agricultural resources of the west can 
be readily converted into this channel, with no extra 
outlay of expenses for machinery in cultivating or 



44 THE WESTERN FARMER 

harvesting, and no previous fitting up or other prep- 
aration for the business. The expensive machinery 
that is requisite in raising the cereals is not required 
in the production of either beets or sugar cane. 
The pulp of beets is found very valuable for either 
hogs or cattle, and will add quite an item of income 
to the manufacturer. 

While individual capital or individual enterprise 
will not generally accomplish much in the establish- 
ment of manufactures in any country, we find by a 
proper combination of capital, skill, and enterprise, 
the business of manufacturing can b<^ made a success 
to any desired magnitude. It is by the proper com- 
bination and co-operation of farmers of the west, 
that these various manufacturing industries must be 
introduced and sustained, to relieve them from their 
present condition of thraldom and bondage to the 
various monied corporations and monopolies of the 
country. While it would seem futile for inexperi- 
enced farmers to undertake to organize and engage 
in any manufacturing industry, it will on the con- 
trary be found not only expedient but profitable in 
most cases, and not divert from the established busi- 
ness of the farm if properl}^ managed. The contri- 
bution of capital in small portions from a certain 
district of country, and the employment of the prop- 
er skilled labor to conduct the enterprise, which can 
be found in this country at all times, will suffice to 
make a start and establish the desired manufactur- 
ing establishments which can usually be sold to some 
party competent and able to carry on the business, 
and thus the object gained with no pecuniary loss to 
the original proprietors of the enterprise. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 45 

Our fabrics of leather should all be made at home, 
where the best raw material from the hides pro- 
duced in our own vicinity can be converted into the 
best quality of leather, at a much less price than 
that paid for the imported shoddy article that is 
manufactured from the cheap and damaged hides of 
tropical countries. The various fabrics of cheap 
and damaged leather combined with paper in the 
manufacture of poUshed boots and shoes fitted up 
for the "western trade," supply in a great measure 
the demand for this trade in the west, which amounts 
to millions of dollars annually exchanged for fifteen 
cent corn and other farm products at half the cost 
of production. The constant tendency of the farm- 
ers as well as the people of the villages and cities to 
ape the dandy and patronize the shoddy manufac- 
turers of wearing apparel that is of no real value for 
either comfort or durability is constantly draining 
the west ot her material resources of wealth, and 
bringing poverty to the door of every western house- 
holder. This is an item of great proportions, and 
so long as it is continued, will the people grumble 
about hard times, and a want of ability to edu- 
cate their children, or support the educational insti- 
tutions of the country, that are so much demanded 
to keep pace with the advancing age of civilization, 
and the arts and sciences, that foster the wealth and 
prosperity of the country. The woolen mill, the 
tannery, and the country shoemaker are wanted in 
every county in the west, and capital invested in 
this branch of industry with ordinary ability in the 



46 THE WESTERN FARMER 

management, is sure to pay a good profit. In the 
fostering and support of these manufactories, as 
well as that of agricultural machinery and f)ther pro- 
ducts of the artisan, so much used in the west, is 
found the cure for the low price of agricultural pro- 
duce, and the cure for the common complaint of 
hard times. The war that is necessarily made up- 
on the railroad monopolies by the western people, 
can he obviated in no other way but to seek the 
most convenient as well as the most speedy method 
to so adjust the various reciprocating industries of 
the country that will render them no longer depend- 
ent upon the railroads or other transportation lines 
of the country. 

" We are fast becoming a nation of schemers, to 
live without genuine work. Our boys are not learn- 
ing trades; our farmers' sons are crowding into cities, 
looking for clerkships and places in post ofiices; 
hardly one American girl in one hundred will do 
housework for wages, however urgent her need; so 
we are sending to Europe for workmen, and buying 
of her artisans millions worth that we ought to 
make for ourselves. Though our crop of rascals 
is heavy we do not grow our own hemp ; though we 
are overrun with lads who deserve flagellation, we 
import our willows. Our women (unless deceived) 
wear European fabrics; our men dress in foreign 
clothes (shoddy) ; the toys which amuse our younger 
children generally reach us from over the sea. 
Hence it is that we plunge deeper and deeper in 
debt to the old world. We are like the liarmer who 
hires his neighbor's sons to cut his wood, feed his 



AND STOCK GROWER. 47 

stock, and run his errands, while his own boys 
lounge at the grog shop, pki^'ing billiards, and then 
wonders why, with his best efforts, he sinks annual- 
ly deeper and deeper into debt, till the sheriff cleans 
him out, and he starts west to begin again." 

'■'■ We must turn over a new leaf. Our boys and 
girls must be taught to love labor by qualifying them- 
selves to do it efficiently. We must turn out fewer 
professionals, and more skilled artisans, as well as 
food growers. We must grow and fabricate two 
hundred millions worth per annum that we now im- 
port, and so reduce the foreign debt that we have so 
long and successfully augmented year by year. We 
must qualify our clever boys to erect and run facto- 
ries, furnaces, rolling mills, tanneries, machine shops, 
etc., to open and work mines, improve and fashion 
implements, and double the present product of their 
fathers' farms. So shall we stem that tide of debt 
that sets steadily against our shores, and cease to be 
visited by hard times." 

We are situated in a country that, wherever we 
travel we are passing over the rich mines of all the 
various ores that enter into the various trades and 
manufactures of the country, and that furnish an 
essential element of prosperity and welfare in all 
civilized nations. With all our natural wealth in 
the form of the various minerals, and other resources 
that constitute the wealth of civilized nations, care- 
lessly trod under our feet, we continue to patronize 
the artisan of the old countries, and import to a 
great extent, that which can be manufactured at 
home for less than one half the price now paid for it. 



48 THE WESTERN FARMER 

"Rich in resources, but poor in purse," was a 
remark made by a leading British statesman while 
on a visit to this country, and this remark applies 
more especially to the west than to the older states. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 49 



CHATTER V. 



TIMBER GROWING. 



THIS subject is one perhaps that demands the 
attention of the western farmer, as well as 
horticulturist, in advance of any other subject, as 
connected with the general welfare of the people of 
the west. In presenting this subject for investiga- 
tion, it becomes quite important to have something 
tangible to the mind as a basis to predicate theories 
and assertions; otherwise any theories that we may 
set up will only pass as theories, and give no satis- 
factory proof to those seeking this information. No 
person will pretend to dispute the great advantage 
that would arise from planting timber as a universal 
thing, throughout the prairie country of the west. 
On the investigation of the subject as to the benefi- 
cial results that would naturally follow the general 
planting of timber, so that every farmer could have 
all the timber needed for the practical purposes of 
the farm, it seems almost impossible to determine 
the various uses and benefits that would accrue from 
timber thus planted. While the individual farmer 
would realize the direct profits that would accrue 
from timber by its use as fuel, fences, shade, and 
protection against winds that are a source of suffer- 
5 



60 THE WESTERN FARMER 

ing to both man and beast: the climatic conditions 
of the country would be so modified as to result in 
a great benefit to the general welfare of the state. 
I find by experiment during this cold winter of 1872 
-73, while situated in a position where my house is 
well protected by being surrounded with timber, 
and all my stock having this protection by a body of 
timber so situated as to break the winds in either 
direction; I have hardly realized any severity in the 
winter, and my stock have gone through the winter 
with no signs of suffering or inconvenience from 
the severity of the weather. While the thermome- 
ter only indicated twenty degrees below zero the 
coldest morning of the season, and only marked 
fifteen degrees below on a few of the coldest morn- 
ings; at a distance of one mile from this timber on 
the open prairie the same thermometer would often 
mark twenty-five to thirty degrees below, in a wind 
almost fatal to animal life. In making an estimate 
of the advantages to my stock, of this one winter, I 
could not estimate this timber protection at less than 
one thousand dollars in value to my stock. The 
pleasure derived from this protection, in caring for 
stock, and carrying on the operations of the farm in 
winter, as well as summer, is of great value, and 
calculated to make the avocation of farm labor one 
of pleasure instead of one of almost constant aggra- 
vation. 

While a very important advantage of timber con- 
sists in its absorbing power in correcting any bad 
condition of the atmosphere, a no less important 
utility is manifested in its agency as a conductor of 



AND STOCK GROWER. 51 

electricity, in drawing oft' constantly from the amos- 
phere the overcharged electrical condition, and thus 
modifying the violence of storms which are of such 
frequent occurrence, and so destructive of property, 
as well as life, on the open prairie. It seems to be 
an acknowledged fact that in the older states, where 
timber has been cut off, the loss of property by 
lightning is much more frequent than formerly, and 
gradually increasing with the decrease of timber. 
While the owners of buildings are induced to pay 
for artificial conductors, in the shape of lightning 
rods; and these conductors seem to be no reliable 
safeguard against lightning — on the contrary, a few 
trees growing in the vicinity of a building are a 
safe and reliable defense against lightning. While 
a tree standing alone on the open prairie, or in the 
open fields, is often struck by lightning and com- 
pletely demolished, we find no such occurrence in a 
body of timber. In traveling through a forest, we 
notice the marks of lightning frequently; but in 
such a modified condition as to produce very little 
damage. The history of nations for the last two 
thousand years has illustrated and demonstrated 
beyond controversy, the effects of cutting off timber, 
as manifested upon the products of the country, 
that necessarily depend upon rain for their success- 
ful growth. 

The modern nations of Europe in accordance with 
the evidence furnished by the older countries of 
Asia that have been depopulated through the influ- 
ence of drouth and consequent famine, have pro- 
vided for growing timber, in order to escape the 



52 THE WESTERN FARMER 



4 



inevitable calamity that has befallen all tl.e older 
countries, by reason of the devastation of their 
forests. Great Britain at the most opportune age 
of her advancing civilization, planted extensive parks 
and forests of timber, and whatever motive prompt- 
ed the English nobility in this work of national im- 
provement, the results have no doubt been entirely 
beyond their anticipations, in the beneficial effects 
upon her climate and fertility of soil. Sardinia and 
Sicily, once the granaries of Italy, have suffered the 
penalty of their thoughtlessness in exterminating 
their forests. Two thousand years ago, those lands 
were celebrated for their wonderful productiveness, 
and were said to be the most beautiful in the world. 
In 1800 Humbolt visited Venezuela, South America, 
and was informed by the natives living in the valley 
of Paraguay, that they had noticed, with great aston- 
ishment, that a lake which lay in the middle of the 
'T^alley had decreased in volume every year; the 
cause of this is clearly traced to the falling of a great 
number of trees which grew on the surrounding 
mountains. In Hungary the periodical drouths are 
universally attributed to the annihilation of the for- 
ests. In Cairo, Lower Egypt, a great many years 
ago, rain fell but seldom, only once in three or four 
years; but since the time of Mohammed AH, twenty 
to thirty millions of trees have been planted, and 
the result is now that the people have from thirty to 
forty rainy days every year. Surely these few of 
the many examples are warnings sufficient to put us 
on our guard. In visiting the old homestead of my 
youthful days where twenty-five to thirty years ago 



AND STOCK GROWER. 53 

I followed behind the plow among the stumps and 
rocks that would at the present time, in the west, be 
considered impossible to plow, I now notice that 
large portions of the country that at that time 
were swamp lands, of no value whatever, from the 
excess of water that covered them, are at the pres- 
ent time the most available and valuable lands in 
the country. And this change has not been effected 
by artificial cultivation or drainage, but by constant 
drying up of the wet places, caused by the cutting 
off the heav}^ timber, that thirty to forty years ago 
covered the entire country. The few small patches 
of forest that are left in the old states, so thined out 
as to let in the sun and winds, are constantly being 
depleted by decay and wind-fall. The seeming eco- 
nomical practice of the farmer, in seeding down and 
pasturing their woodlands, is also fast destroying 
their timber; and the natural consequence of the 
general depletion of the forests of the older states, 
is fast tending to long seasons of drouth and scarcity 
of water, as well as a marked decrease in the 
average yield of all grain crops. On the western 
prairie it is plainly more perceptible that the land 
lying adjacent to the timber that borders all of our 
streams is much more productive in all grain crops, 
as well as cultivated grasses, from the fact of hav- 
ing more moisture, which is so essential for the de- 
velopment of full crops. 

With a proper realization of the facts herein 
stated, as well as many other facts that might be 
cited, of the value of timber to the treeless portion 
of the west, it would seem of the first and utmost 



54 THE WESTERN FARMER 

importance to all permanent settlers on the prairie 
to secure as fast as possible the growth of timber. 
The general overturning of the prairie soil, and ex- 
posing the alluvial soil of the prairie to the burn- 
ing rays of the sun, tends to increase the excessive 
heat of summer, as well as check the otherwise nat- 
ural flow of moisture that is given off" by the vege- 
tation of the prairie, in a natural condition. This 
condition of the atmosphere of the prairie, as well 
as the miasmatic condition arising from the decom- 
position of vegetable matter in the soil, is greatly 
modified, and its injurious influences counteracted 
by the growth of timber. 

The suicidal policy of allowing stock to run at 
large on the prairie, militates greatly against timber 
planting, and necessitates a heavy expense to the 
farmer in building and keeping up fences. With 
the growth of timber and live fences, which can so 
easily and cheaply be accomplished, in a few years, 
if protection against stock is given without the ex- 
pense of fencing, the value of real estate would 
probably be enhanced from flfty to one hundred per 
cent. Timber tvould also furnish a large element 
to the building up of various manufacturing indus- 
tries so much needed to keep pace with the agricul- 
tural branch of industry. 

In the great variety of timber that seems to be 
naturally adapted to the alluvial soil of the prairie, 
we will notice a few as deserving of the most im- 
portance. 

Among the deciduous variety we And indigenous 
to the soil and climate, are the soft or silver maple, 



AND STOCK GROWER. 55 

Cottonwood, honey locust, black and white walnut, 
the diflerent varieties of oak and elm, in fact most all 
the diiferent varieties growing in the older states ; 
all of which can be propagated either by seed or 
cuttings. The introduction of Lombardy poplar 
and white willow as fast growing timber for live 
fences, and wind breaks, has been of great value to 
tho prairie country. The introduction of all the 
different varieties of evergreens has also proved 
more or less successful. One controling principle 
in the planting and growing of forest trees, as well 
as fruit trees, should be observed ; which is this : 
that all the slow growing and hard wood trees nec- 
essarily require a hard clay or gravely soil, and gen- 
erally succeed best in the drift formation, while all 
the softer varieties, such as white willow, cottonwood, 
Lombardy poplar, silver maple and some other vari- 
eties make a healthy and rapid growth in the alluvial 
or black soil of the prairie. 

The common disease called blight throughout the 
prairie country arises from an abnormal condition 
of the tree, caused by a want of proper elements in 
the soil, for its healthy growth. This condition of 
blight also arises from the attacks of parasitic and 
insect life, that has a spontaneous growth in the de- 
composition, going on in all new lands of the prairie. 
After a few years cropping the alluvial soils, so as 
to remove the organic matter from the soil as much 
as possible, tree planting and fruit growing will be 
attended with greater success. 

In propagating trees from cuttings, wood should 
be used of not more than two years growth, as a 



56 THE WESTERN FARMER 

general rule; and all crooked side branches rejected. 
The main or straight stalks should be used, and the 
strips or cuttings made from the most vigorous grow- 
ing sprouts. The cuttings of the Lombardy poplar 
should be cut about ten inches in length, and the 
but end sharpened so as to be pushed into the 
ground by hand, at an angle of about forty-five de- 
grees; and the cutting set in so that only the top 
end will be exposed above ground. As a usual thing 
all will grow and throw up sprouts from the top 
buds, usually to five or six in number. These sprouts 
after growing three to six inches high must all be 
pulled ofi* by hand except the strongest one to be 
left to form the tree. This operation of pulling oiF 
sprouts will have to be performed at least twice 
during the early part of the summer, so as to have 
but one stalk to each root; and must be kept hoed 
clean during the first year, and no weeds allowed to 
grow. These cuttings should be set in rows about 
three feet apart between rows, and about ten to 
twelve inches apart in the row. The first year's 
growth will usually be about five to six feet, and 
two years' growth in the nursery is generally best. 
After three years' growth, two in the nursery and one 
in the field, the poplar will usually be large enough 
to sustain itself against the attacks of most animals. 
The Lombardy poplar forms a very beautiful tree 
for a border tree along roadsides, and division 
fences, and ie one of the most valuable trees for a 
wind-break about buildings. It is usually clean and 
fi'ee from insects and not as apt to throw up succors 
from the roots as many other kinds. When set 



AND STOCK GROWER. 57 

along the fence row, it will form a basis for a fence, 
that can be made cheaply of boards, and hung on to 
the tree by means of iron spikes, or wooden pins 
driven into the tree to answer as hooks to support 
the fence, that can be made in movable panels. The 
Cottonwood can be propagated the same as the pop- 
lar, and is a fast growing tree, always hardy; but it 
has its objections that arise from the throwing off 
blossoms in the form of lint. It is a branching tree, 
and valuable for its hardiness and adaptation to all 
the various soils of the prairie. 

Balm of Grilead, quite similar to the cottonwood 
in its habits, is propagated by cuttings and is a val- 
uable tree. It is a branching tree like the cotton- 
wood but always clean, and is a very good shade or 
border tree. To multiply cuttings for a wholesale 
business of propagating trees, probably the best plan 
is to take trees at three or four years of age, and cut 
the main stalk off a foot or eighteen inches above 
ground, during the winter season. The succors that 
will sprout from this stalk in great numbers, will 
make the best of cuttings, and only a few trees will 
be required to produce any amount desired. 

White willow can be grown from cuttings pro- 
duced in the same way, and if properly managed 
will make a reliable fence as well as shade and wind- 
break. Although the white willow has lost reputa- 
tion with some, I am satisfied that it is one of the 
most valuable plants for the western prairie, .^ts 
rapid growth and hardiness as well as adaptation to 
all of the prairie soils, gives it great merit for both 
timber and live fence. The best plan of producing 



58 THE WESTERN FARMER 

live fences from white willow is to grow them thick- 
ly in the nursery, and when the stalks are about 
ten to fifteen feet high, and two to four inches in 
diameter, cut otf at the ground and trim off" all 
branches from the main stalk. This main stalk can 
be divided into cuttings or stalks, four to five feet 
in length and sharpened at the butt end, then driven 
into the ground eight or ten inches in depth, and 
six to eight inches apart in the fence row. The 
ground should be plowed deep the year previous to 
setting the fence, and the work of constructing the 
fence should be performed as soon as the frost is out 
of the ground in the spring. The cuttings should 
be selected so as to have all of the same size, as near 
as practicable in the same row. After one year's 
growth in the fence row, this fence will turn any 
kind of stock, and not be liable to be browsed down 
by cattle. 

This plan of fencing I think the cheapest and 
probably as reliable as any live fence that can be 
constructed on the prairie. And while the willow 
performs the office of a fence it will at the same 
time produce more timber than is needed in the 
fence row, and afford great protection against the 
wind as well as furnish shade to the fields, so much 
needed by all kinds of stock. For timber and shade, 
the silver maple demands as much attention as any 
other tree on the western prairie. It is easily prop- 
agated from seed, is perfectly hardy and adapted to 
any kind of prairie soil. This tree grows along the 
banks of our rivers, and the seed dropped in the 
month of May should be gathered and kept moist 



AND STOCK GROWER. 59 

until planted. The seed taken out of the ground 
will soon dry out and lose its vitality ; and for this 
reason should be planted immediately in rich mellow 
soil, not more than one inch deep ; and like all other 
nursery stock, be cultivated and kept clean of weeds 
for two years, when it will do to transplant. 

The black and white walnut are also valuable tim- 
ber for the prairie, and easily produced from seed, 
planted in the fall, which will split by the action of 
the frost and sprout in the spring. 

The chestnut is also propagated from seed planted 
in the spring. The seed is quite liable to lose its 
vitality by drying, and requires careful management 
to retain its vitality through the winter. The seed 
should be gathered as soon as dropped and packed 
in sand, and boxed tight for shipping. The tree is 
indigenous to the drift formation of the older states, 
and likes a stony or sandy soil. Our highest or ridge 
lands of the west such as are sandy and gravely, or 
peculiar to drift formation, are more especially ad- 
apted to the chestnut. 

The honey locust is indigenous to the west, and 
makes a valuable timber, as well as reliable live fence, 
when dwarfed and raised as a hedge plant. It is 
propagated from the seed, quite similar to the osage 
orange ; and in its natural habit is quite similar to 
the latter plant, but has the advantage of being bet- 
ter adapted to a cold climate. The honey locust, 
like the osage orange, is more adapted to the drift 
formation, and thrives best in a dry, gravely, or sandy 
soil. 

All plants will stand a higher climate and greater 



60 THE WESTERN FARMER 

severity of freezing if grown in a soil that is natural 
for their healthy growth. It is on this principle that 
people will honestly differ, in their views as to the 
merits of different trees and shrubbery, on the west- 
ern prairie. "With this glancing view of some of the 
more important varieties of deciduous trees, we 
now notice some of the advantages of growing the 
various evergreens. This class of trees, when con- 
sidered as to their various merits and value, are, I 
think, of greater value than is usually credited to 
them. Their growth for winter protection, against 
the driving storms of the prairie country, is of such 
value as would seem to make them almost indispen- 
sable. While the wild animals of the mountain re- 
gions of the west seek the evergreen timber in the 
mountains for protection in winter, of far greater 
importance as winter protection, would be the result 
of growing evergreen timber on the prairie. All 
the leading varieties of evergreens, especially those 
from western nursery stock, thrive well on any of 
our prairie soils. The deep porous soil of the prai- 
rie seems well adapted to the healthy growth of this 
class of trees. Their pecular resinous nature seems 
to protect them from the attacks of parasitic life in 
the prairie soil, which is so destructive to fruit trees. 
In many instances where the planting of an or- 
chard would otherwise have proved a failure on the 
open prairie; by the planting of evergreens in con. 
nection with fruit trees, a success could be made in 
growing fruit. 

It apparently seems to be a fact, that planting corn 
in the orchard tends to give a healthy growth to the 



AND STOCK GROWER. 61 

fruit trees, but the sequel of such success, I am in- 
clined to believe, is not generally understood. 

The leading cause of failure in fruit growing on 
the alluvial soil of the prairie results from the super- 
abundance of organic or vegetable matter in the soil. 
It is this same element that gives the abundant corn 
crop that is always reliable on our deep black soil of 
the prairie. By the constant cropping of corn on 
the same land this element in a measure becomes 
exhausted. The planting of corn in the orchard, 
tends to exhaust this element of organic matter, and 
at the same time counteracts the natural tendency to 
the spontaneous production of sporadic and parasi- 
tic life, which is so fatal to orchards on new lands. 
Thus we see that by planting corn in the orchard, 
the soil is rendered more healthy for the growth of 
fruit. On this same principle the growing of ever- 
greens in alternate rows through the orchard would 
tend to give greater health and vitality to the fruit 
trees. In addition to this, the winter protection giv- 
en to fruit trees, by evergreens as a border around 
the orchard, and alternate rows through the orchard, 
would secure them against all danger of winter 
killing. 

The great beauty and relief from dead winter 
scenery, that is afforded by the evergreen, makes it 
very desirable to the homestead. The cheerful sur- 
roundings of home are greatly promoted by the 
evergreen scenery, that naturally breaks up the 
monotony of winter life. The modification of cold, 
resulting from an evergreen border, is very remark- 
able and would hardly be credited until tested by 



62 THE WESTERN FARMER 

the thermometer. It is this protection for both man 
and beast, that renders the evergreen so valuable as 
a border and door-yard tree. 

As to the different varieties, they are all desirable, 
and variety adds beaut}^ to the scenery. The Scotch 
pine and Austrianpine, the Norway spruce, and bal- 
sam fir, are leading varieties of standard trees. The 
European larch is also valuable, while the arbor 
vitee makes a valuable hedge, and has no equal for 
a garden fence. 

All evergreen trees should be taken up and trans- 
planted early in the spring, and the roots must be 
kept from drying or death is sure to follow. For 
this reason they are very difficult to ship, and if 
shipped any distance are liable to get dry on the 
road and be entirely lost. It is much safer to set 
only small trees if they have to be shipped any dis- 
tance; as small trees can be packed solid and the 
moisture retained, while large trees cannot be so 
packed. The expense of setting and growing ever- 
greens is not as great on the whole as growing fruit 
trees. 

In the conclusion of this subject I will submit an 
idea to the reader for future investigation, and if 
discovered to be founded in the nature of things, 
perhaps it may be of value in conducting many of 
the various operations of the farm, as well us grow- 
ing fruit and forest trees. We will first, to present 
this subject in its true light, imagine that we are in 
the month of June taking a walk over the prairie, 
where we find on every hand the great diversity of 
plant life, in full bloom, and each species perfect in 



AND STOCK UROWER. 63 

its structure and organization, and the greater the 
diversity of surrounding conditions of moisture, and 
elements of soil, a corresponding diversity of plant 
life. We leave this natural scenery and go into the 
forest where we again find the various forest trees 
promiscuously intermingled as to the various species, 
and kinds, and each possessing a peculiarity of its 
own, distinct and different in organic quality and 
structure. We take a view of different countries, 
under various conditions of soil and climate, and we 
behold the same condition of variety and diversity 
manifested in the natural growth of vegetable life. 
We look again and investigate the condition of ani- 
mal life, in a normal condition, and behold the great 
diversity of types, and characters in the animal king- 
dom. We stop to reflect a moment, and ask the 
question, Is this all chance work? a matter of mere 
accident? Or is it by design? by fixed laws that are 
all founded in nature, and never varying in results ? 
If we take the latter view, which our reason will 
certainly dictate to us. What, again I ask, does the 
lesson teach us ? Does it not teach us that there is 
a fixed principle that underlies and governs the de- 
velopment of organic life ? and that this same princi- 
ple is carried out through the vegtable as well as the 
animal kingdom? If this logic is sound, this reason- 
ing correct, where should we go for lessons, but to 
the economy of nature, to prepare ourselves for the 
desired success in tree planting, in fruit growdng, 
and in the reproduction of animal life, which has 
for its highest type man, created in the image of 
his maker? We set about growing the forest tree 



64 THE WESTERN FARMER 

or growing an orchard. Why set all one class of 
trees on the same land ? Nature does not plant in that 
way. The soil is composed of various elements; 
in plant life we behold the natural results of this 
condition of soil. Nature carries on the system of 
routine in vegetable life to some extent in the lower 
order of animal productions; but the common rule 
is promiscuous productions, and diversity of plant 
life on the same ground at the same time. Is not 
this an essential principle for a more perfect success 
in growing crops as well as growing timber or forest 
trees? The various elements in the soil require an 
adequate diversity in plants, or trees, to take up 
from the soil at the same time these various ele- 
ments, and by this principle only can we make a 
perfect success in tree and fruit growing. In plant- 
ing our orchards, various kinds of forest trees, to- 
gether with various kinds of fruit trees, interspersed 
through the orchard, would, I think, furnish the 
sequel of success in fruit growing on the prairie. 

The most perfect specimens of fruit and fruit 
trees, if my observation is correct, are found grow- 
in >r under these same conditions in the state of Iowa. 
Many cases are on record where mixed grains have 
produced a marked increase in the crop, as well as 
a better developed and more perfect grain in all the 
different kinds grown together. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 65 



CHAPTER VI. 

FRUIT GROWING. 

IN presenting this subject to the intelligent reader, 
I shall advance ideas in opposition to th(i opinions 
of many that are even successful fruit growers. 
While the pride of the western farmer would like to 
have the opinion go out on paper, that the western 
prairie is well adapted to fruit growing, and that the 
production of fruit is a general success on the prai- 
rie, yet the discussions at our horticultural conven- 
tions seem to disclose the fact that there are great 
obstacles and impediments to growing fruit through- 
out the west. Notwithstanding this fact, there are 
some portions of the prairie country that are now 
producing a surplus of apples and other fruits for 
the market. Comparatively speaking, a large share 
of the fruit trees planted on the western prairie 
have died out, and a system of replanting is neces- 
sarily required to keep up the supply in the orchard. 
In the early settlement of the west, nursery' stock 
was usually brought into the west from the older 
states, and the celebrated Rochester nurseries of 
New York supplied a large share of this trade. 

The promiscuous and carele-^s manner of planting 
this stock on the newly "^urned soil of the open prai- 
ries, without protection from the winds, was sure to 



aO THE WESTERN FARMER 

result in a general loss of the trees that followed as 
a natural result of such planting, and the tree ped- 
dler and eastern nurseryman become very unpopu- 
lar in the west. Coexistent with this condition of 
the fruit business in the west, these same Rochester 
nurseries furnished trees by the ship load that were 
transported clear around Cape Horn to California, 
and there transplanted with the greatest possible 
success, and came into bearing within three to fotir 
years, or about one-half the time required in the 
older states. While all the diiferent varieties of 
these trees proved to be vigorous and healthy in Cal- 
ifornia soil and climate, they at the same time 
proved to be very prolific bearers, and the quality 
of the fruit was such as could scarcely be recognized 
by the eastern fruit growers, the same species pro- 
ducing an entirely different and superior quality of 
fruit to that produced in the older states. All fruits 
except the apple seem to be improved in quality, as 
well as size, by transplanting in the volcanic soil of 
California. The California climate doubtless has 
much to do in giving the superior flavor to fruits of 
that country. The apple, as an exception, loses in 
flavor in California climate and soil, and is found in 
its more perfect flavor on the sandy or gravelly lands 
of Michigan, Northern Ohio, and portions of New 
York. 

The brackish or bad flavor of the apple grown 
on the prairie is doubtless caused by the alluvial 
soil, and planting on lands that have been tilled for 
a number of years will obviate this difficulty. We 
find the soil of California, which is destitute of or- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 67 

ganic matter, and composed mostly of decomposed 
volcanic rock, and especially mineral in its nature, 
especially adapted to all the difterent kinds of fruit 
which grow in the greatest abundance and of the 
most luxurious character, while the main staples of 
the western prairie, such as corn, oats, and grass, 
cannot be raised there with any success. The pear 
tree linds in the California soil its natural home, and 
proves a success beyond anything ever known 
in the experience of that fruit in any other coun- 
try. The pear tree is but a partial success on 
the prairie except on the hard or bluif lands 
bordering the rivers, or such lands as are, in 
a great measure, destitute of organic matter. What 
is essential to the pear is also more or less es- 
sential to the cherry or plum. A few varieties of 
these three species of fruit seem to be sufficiently 
hardy to stand the climate of the more northerly 
portions of the western prairie, but in latitude south 
of about forty-one degrees, the different varieties of 
pears and plums, as well as cherries and peaches, 
are grown successfully on such soil as has a special 
adaptation to fruit growing. The small fruits seem 
to have much the advantage in their adaptation to 
the alluvial soil of the prairie, and make a better 
success on new lands than standard trees. The 
nurseries that are becoming noAv established 
throughout the whole western country are able to 
supply each locality with all nursery stock that is 
adapted to the locality where the nurseries are loca- 
ted ; but there are many of these nurseries that are 
located on lands not well adapted to growing sound 



68 THE WESTERN FARMER 

and healthy stock, and what is produced is of little 
value comparatively for transplanting. Such nur- 
series as are located on the level prairie land, on a 
soil that is deep and black loam without sand in its 
composition, but redundant in organic matter, will 
not furnish good, healthy stock that can be relied 
upon to grow an orchard. 

Many of the western nurseries, for a want of prac- 
tical knowledge in fruit growing by the owners of 
these nurseries, are unwisely located, and therefore 
of little value to propagate fruit from. To produce 
healthy nursery stock, as well as grow fruit success- 
fully, land should be selected that is sufficiently 
rolling to give natural drainage, and the rougher 
lands that receive the most wash, or such as are nat- 
urally inclined to grow timber or underbrush, are 
better adapted to fruit growing. In the preparation 
of ground for an orchard, land that is rolling should 
be selected, and much better to have three or four 
Ci'ops of corn or oats taken oif before planting to 
trees, unless the land is of that quality that is com- 
mon to most timber lands in the west, or containing 
plenty of sand. No person should expect to make a 
success at growing fruit trees on the prairie without 
proper protection, by planting fast growing timber 
as a belt around the orchard, and also every alter- 
nate row through the orchard of some timber tree 
of the soft wood varieties. In planting m this way 
the rows should be twelve to fifteen feet apart each 
way, and only every other tree a fruit tree each way. 
In the course of time, as the timber became too 
much of an incumbrance and encroached upon the 



AND STOCK GROWER. 69 

fruit trees, it could be gradually cut away to be 
used for various purposes on the farm. In the early 
growth of the fruit trees, the various kinds of tim- 
ber growth would give protection from winds, as 
well as to counteract in a measure the injurious ef- 
fects of insects that seem to forbid the successful 
growth of fruit on the prairie. The softer varieties 
of timber planted through the orchard in this way 
would make a rapid growth and operate as an ab- 
sorbent of such elements in the soil as are not taken 
up by fruit trees, on the same principle of growing 
corn or oats for correcting the redundancy of organ- 
ic matter in the soil. Neither wheat or potatoes 
should ever be grown in an orchard, as wheat takes 
up in its growth the elements, silica or sand, lime, 
potash, and phosphorous, while potatoes depend in 
a great measure upon potash, and all these ingredi- 
ents are the essential elements of growing fruit. 

The orchard should be seeded to clover by the 
fifth or sixth year of its growth, and from that- 
time forward should be the swine pasture of the 
farm. The early dropped fruit of the orchard is 
more or less infested with worms and insects of va- 
rious kinds, and their complete destruction by swine 
would in a measure prevent their increase. The 
destruction of fruit trees by borers and other insects 
as well as by blight, is a source of aggravation and 
opposition to fruit growing on the western prairie. 

While there is much speculation and diversity of 
opinion as to causes and remedy, it seems quite ob- 
vious that one common cause lies at the foundation 
of the whole trouble, and while a remedy is not per- 



70 THE AVESTERN FARMER 

haps to be found that can be relied upon as a cure, 
at the same time much can be done that will tend to 
remedy these evils. As one of the means of success, 
I would advise planting orchards on land after it had 
been cropped for a few years in corn and oats. As 
another means of success, grow fruit trees in con- 
nection witli timber trees or evergreens on the same 
ground. As a third source of security against all 
insect and parasitic life and the consequent blight, I 
would advise the use of ashes and carbonate of lime, 
or common quick lime. The application of these 
articles by sowing or scattering over the surface of 
the soil, if used in sufficient quantity, or used in a 
small quantity annually for three or four years, w411 
correct this condition of parasitic life in the soil, and 
at the same time give to the fruit trees the proper 
food and nourishment that is so essential for healthy 
growth and a bountiful crop of fruit. An experi- 
ment by the application of these ingredients to one 
tree will satisfy any one of their practical value on 
most any soil, and on the alluvial soil of the prairie 
is almost indispensable to success in fruit growing. 
The article of fruit, from its peculiar virtue as a 
hygenic necessity in all civilized nations of the earth, 
has a more important value perhaps to the people of 
the prairie country than to any other locality on the 
continent. The common habit of eating meat, which 
is so cheap in the west, especially with farmers, and 
the appetite created by our cold winters for meat 
and other hearty food that is consumed by people 
engaged in out-door labor to great excess, naturally 



AND STOCK GROWER. 71 

iudiues a bilious condition of the system, wliich, as 
the hot months approach, is aggravated by any mi- 
asmatic condition of the c-Hmate, and the various 
febrile diseases follow as a natural result. As a 
counteracting influence to this morbid condition of 
the system, fruit, as an article of diet, becomes a 
matter of necessity, and tends to keep the human 
system in a healthy tone, and so avoid the prevailing 
diseases that are both epidemic and endemic in 
character. Fruit through the hot months of the 
season is an indispensable necessity, and at what- 
ever cost procured, should be used plentifully by 
every family. It is from the neglect of these timely 
precautions in diet that many families of all new 
countries are necessarily under the care of physi- 
cians, that tend to exhaust the purse of the unfortu- 
nate invalid, and destroy in a measure all hopes of 
prosperity in business, as well as mar the social life 
and well-being of the individual or neighborhood. 
Good health is the mainspring to all human prosper- 
ity, and makes life an object even under the most 
discouraging circumstances of misfortune. Through- 
out the whole western country, where fruit has not 
become a common article of diet, from its scarcity 
and consequent cost, and by the economical princi- 
ple of living necessarily required by the poorer classes 
of people that are seemingly deprived of its use, we 
behold the result of this deprivation m the frequent 
sickness among that class that is constantly tending 
to check their onward progress in wealth and pros- 
perity. For want of a proper knowledge and appre- 



72 THE WESTERN FARMER 

elation of the facts as to the necessity of using fruit 
by all classes more or less able to purchase where 
fruit is not grown, much loss and suffering by ill- 
health is common throughout the west. 

In cases where the early settlers have not been 
able to raise fruit so as to have the necessary supply, 
the dried apple in market is probabl}' the most valu- 
ble as well as the cheapest for consumption. While 
the several varieties of fruit are all good in their 
time and place, the apple, as a common article of 
diet, either fresh or dried, has no equal in value 
and no substitute in its peculiar adaptation to the 
human system. 

For summer fruit, the strawberry, currant, rasp- 
berry, gooseberry, and blackberry, each in its sea- 
son, can be easily cultivated on most all western 
soils, and every garden throughout the land should 
be supplied with them in sutRcient abundance for all 
wants of fresh fruit, and each can be successfully 
dried or preserved for winter use. In the absence 
of the various fruits from standard trees that neces- 
sarily require time to grow, these small fruits can be 
substituted and grown so quickly that n(; one can 
excuse themselves for not having plenty of fruit after 
two or three years' location on a farm For a 
strawberry, the Wilson's Albany is undoubtedly the 
best variety for general cultivation through the 
west. The grape should also be cultivated by every 
one, as a wholesome fruit and one well adapted to 
most all prairie soils. While there are many varie- 
ties in cultivation, and all more or less valuable, the 



AND STOCK GROWER. 73 

Concord is the main stand-by, and will pay for cul- 
tivation better than any other variety. All the wild 
fruits found in the country can be transplanted to the 
garden and improved by cultivation, and usually, on 
new lands, grow successfully and prove more profit- 
able than cultivated varieties. 



74 THE WESTERN FARMER 



CHAPTER VII. 



GRAIN GROWING. 



THE subject of grain growing on the western 
prairie is one of no secondary importance, as 
all farmers on new farms must necessarily make this 
a leading business, until at such time as the farm 
can be iitted for handling stock to an advantage. 

The stock grower also finds it a necessity to grow 
grain extensively for both summer and winter feed- 
ing. With the very large crops of corn and oats, 
so easily raised on the alluvial soil of the western 
prairie that will not bear transportation any great 
distance, the growing of grain is found to be gener- 
ally unprofitable under the present prices, as well as 
those that are likely to prevail in the future. The 
great extent of country that is being suddenly 
opened up to grain culture in the west, is sure to 
have its effect on the grain markets of the world; 
and if transportation could be furnished to throw 
our annual surplus into the markets suddenly, the 
consequence would be a glut m the markets of both 
the old world and the new. 

With the extensive progress being made for facili- 
ties of transportation, it is found entirely inadequate 



AND STOCK GROWER, 75 

to the demands of the west ; and while the country 
demands twenty-iive millions of tons freightage annu- 
ally, only nineteen millions of tons are furnished in 
the aggregate. 

And while the natural remedy for this condition 
of things consists in building up all the reciprocat- 
ing industries of the various manufacturing interests, 
80 much demanded in the west, to obviate this great 
demand for transportation, this remedy cannot be 
brought to bear suddenly so as to give immediate 
relief, or give promise of a better price for grain in 
the immediate future. The very idea suggested by 
the word transportation, naturally implies the fact of 
the agricultural wealth of the country being concen- 
trated into cities and villages by the various lines of 
transportation that tend to impoverish the western 
farmer, and by this process of concentration of cap- 
tial to cities, build up unproductive wealth, that sup- 
ports a vast population in luxurious living, all at the 
expense of the farmer. 

The only condition of immediate relief for the 
western grain grower consists in that close alliance 
of stock growing that will consume the surplus grain 
of the country to a great extent, and thus concen- 
trate the bulky produce of the country into a form 
that will more profitably bear transportation to dis- 
tant markets. 

On farms newly broken up, a fair crop of wheat 
can be raised, on the prairie, but after a few years' 
cropping, wheat is no longer a reliable crop. In all 
that portion of country north of forty-one degrees 
north latitude, it costs about one dollar per bushel 



76 THE WESTERN FARMER 

to raise wheat on an average, and south of that paral- 
lel, in the corn growing region, it costs nearly two 
dollars per bushel to raise wheat. But the prices 
are very seldom realized, and hence the unthrifty 
and poverty stricken appearance that characterizes 
the farm of the western wheat grower. 

While on new lands a crop of twenty or twenty- 
five bushels per acre is occasionally produced, and a 
small profit is realized, the best wheat districts of 
the west only average about thirteen to fourteen 
bushels per acre, and a large portion of this is of 
such inferior quality, that a deduction below market 
price is necessarily made that still curtails the prof- 
its; and the average crop of the western prairie 
is only ten bushels per acre. The European 
markets have for the last two years afforded an 
outlet for the surplus wheat of the country, so 
as to give the western farmer eighty cents to 
one dollar per bushel for wheat ; but even this 
market cannot be relied upon more than one 
year in five on an average. And while a temporary 
market will occasionally give the wheat grower a 
living price for wheat, this is an inducement to 
greater outlay in growing wheat that is calculated 
to bring ruin upon the wheat grower. These facts, 
though apparent to the most careless observer, do 
not seem to be heeded, and a repetition of the same 
routine of cropping is followed from year to year, 
by a large portion of laborers throughout the west, 
"that live from hand to mouth," and do not seem to 
realize that any better opportunity is afforded them 
for obtaining a livelihood. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 77 

While the cost of raising oats and hauling to mar- 
ket in the west is not less than twenty-five to thirty 
cents per bushel, allowing the average distance of 
each farmer from market to be six miles, it will be 
seen readily that there is no better pay in hauling 
off oats to market than there is in wheat, as the 
price of this grain will seldom give satisfactory com- 
pensation for producing and marketing off the farm. 

And what is true of wheat and oats is also true 
of the corn crop. As a basis for getting at the facts 
in the shape of figures, we will estimate the average 
value of an improved farm in the west at twenty-five 
dollars per acre, and take one hundred acres as a 
basis for calculation, as follows : 

100 acres of land at $25 per acre $2,500 

Necessary teams and farm tools 1,000 

Capital invested $3,500 

Wheat Crop, Dr. 

To interest on capital at 7 per cent $245 

To amount taxes in all 100 

To cost of breaking at $3 per acre 300 

To cost of 200 bushels seed at $1.00 200 

To putting in seed at seventy-five cents per acre 75 

To harvesting, including board, at $4.00 per acre 400 

To threshing fifteen hundred bushels, at 12 cents 180 

To hauling to market, at 5 cents 75 

To cost of fifteen hundred bushels of wheat $1,575 

Wheat Crop, Cr. 
By fifteen hundred busTiels at 85 cents $1,275 

A loss on wheat crop at the average yield per 
acre in the best wheat districts, we find by this esti- 



T8 THE WESTERN FARMER ' 

mate is |30, while the average yield of th(} prairie is 
about ten bushels per acre, and costing for produc- 
tion not less than $1.25 per bushel. 

We will now suppose he gets twenty bushels per 
acre, or two thousand bushels at eighty-five cents 
per bushel, and we have $1,700, but deduct seven- 
teen cents per bushel on this five hundred bushels 
added, for threshing and marketing, it being $85, 
leaves $1,615, or an apparent profit of $40 ; but the 
business of wheat growing necessarily requires a 
certain capital in machinery that depreciates in value 
very fast, and horses, that are an expense to the 
owner for nearly one half of the year without any 
profit, and when we consider the loss by death on 
work horses, and all other items of contingent ex- 
penses, it is not safe to estimate any less than twenty 
bushels per acre to make a wheat crop pay for rais- 
ing. The cost of hauling six to twelve miles on an 
average, cannot be estimated safely at less than six 
cents per bushel. The cost of threshing wheat I 
have figured for myself a number of times, and find 
that the cost is about twelve to thirteen cents per 
bushel, everything included. 

Now when we ascertain the fact that the average 
yield of wheat in the west is only about twelve to 
fourteen bushels per acre on the best land, and that 
the average price realized by the farmer is only 
about eighty cents per bushel, the fact becomes plain 
that the wheat grower gets no pa}^ for his labor, that 
is any object or inducement to continue the business. 

Again, if a man lives near a station so as to save 
the expense mostly incurred in hauling to market, 



AND STOCK (iROWEK. 79 

the additional value on his investment in land will 
oft'set the gain in distance to market. In estimating 
the cost of labor in this statement, we cannot take 
any other basis than the price of labor by the day 
at the time the work is done, and for a number of 
years in the past, the cost has been fully up to the 
estimate here made. 

The actual expense of keeping a reaper and keep- 
ing in repair, will make the cost of cutting usually 
twenty-five cents per acre besides the interest on 
the money invested, which item is not entered in 
the statement here furnished. 

In contrast with wheat growing we will give a 
statement showing the average cost of oats, as 
follows: 

100 acres of land at $2o per acre $2,500 

Teams and farm tools 1,000 

Amount of investment $3,500 

Oat Crop, Dr. 

To interest on capital at 7 per cent $245 

To taxes in the aggregate 100 

To cost of plowing 100 acres, at $1 50 150 

To cost of 200 bushels seed, at 20 cents 50 

To putting in seed, at 60 cents per acre 60 

To harvesting, at $4 per acre 400 

To threshing 4,000 bushels, at 8 cents 320 

To hauling to market, 4 cents per bushel 160 

Cost of 4,000 bushels of oats $1,485 

Oat Crop, Cr. 
By 4,000 bushels, at 15 cents $ ^00 

Apparet loss on crop $ 885 



80 THE WESTERN FARMER 

Now we will make an allowance of |285, that by 
economy and overestimate of taxes for certain places, 
and we still have $1,200 cost, or thirty cents per 
bushel for cost of oats in market, or at the lowest 
cost on the farm in granery is twenty-five cents per 
bushel threshed, or seventeen cents per bushel in 
stack on the farm. As an essential food for most 
animals on the form, fed in the straw, with the value 
of straw for bedding, oats are a good crop, and will 
pay well to raise for feeding in this way, and for 
growing sheep successfully, are a necessity for win- 
ter feed. 

For an estimate in growing corn, we will take the 
same basis of estimation as heretofore : 

100 acres land at $25 per acre $2,500 00 

Stock and tools 1,000 00 

Capital invested $3,500 00 

Corn Crop, Dr. 

To interest on capital, at 7 percent $245 00 

To taxes in full 100 00 

To plowing 100 acres, at $1.50 150 00 

To fifteen bushels of seed, at 50 cents 7 50 

To preparing and marking ground 40 00 

To planting 100 acres, at 60 cents 60 00 

To tilling ninety days at $2.50 per day 225 00 

To picking and cribbing 4,000 bushels, at 5 cents 200 00 

To cost of 4,000 bushels in crib $1,027 00 

To hauling to market at 5 cents per bushel 200 00 

To cost in market $1,227 50 

Corn Crop, Cr. 
By 4,000 bushels, at 15 cents 600 00 



AND STOCK GROWER. 81 

Deduct for any over estimate that might be saved 
in favorable localities, and we still have a cost of 
twenty-eight to thirty cents per bushel in market, or 
twenty-two to twenty-four cents in crib on farm. 

It will be readily seen from the foregoing state- 
ments, that the raising of the three leading staples 
of grain in the west will not pay a price that will 
give prosperity to the farmer if hauled off to mar- 
ket. But on the contrary, as a means of growing 
good stock, grain is an essential crop on the farm, 
and where farming is carried on intelligently, in the 
form of mixed husbandry, there is still ground left 
for a reasonable protit in western farming, even un- 
der the present depressed prices of all farm produce. 
While the western farmer cannot suddenly produce 
wealth with his own labor, he can at least with the 
proper intelligence and economy in managing a 
farm, grow up wealth under the various natural ad- 
vantages that surround him in a rich and wealthy 
country, that furnishes all the facilities for growing 
superior live stock, sufficient fruit and timber of a:l 
the varieties essential for the practical wants of the 
farm, as welt as the benefit of the country at large. 

From the natural advantages of cheap land already 
fitted for immediate culture, no couiitiy in the world 
otters equal advant ges for the beginner in life, who 
has a proper zeal and ambition for prosperity in life. 
The important principle that underlies western pros- 
perity in agricultural pursuits, is embodied in the 
words " growth and development." 

In reiterating the fact or principle that furnishes 
the actual sources of wealth to the tiller of the soil. 



82 THE WESTERN FARMER 

the ground plan should be properly established in 
the gradual fitting up of the farm, with permanent 
and cheap live fences, and timber for the use of the 
farm and protection against winds, as well as the va- 
rieties of fruit that furnish the table through the dif- 
ferent months of the year with fresh, luxurious, and 
necessary food. With these permanent fixtures that 
soon grow up into a source of wealth for the indi- 
vidual, as well as the country at large, the various 
classes of domestic animals that thrive so well, and 
are grown so cheaply, will always give a source of 
profit if properly fed and cared for, and of the right 
kind for the natural adaptation of soil and climate, 
as well as demand of the markets. As a means of 
success in agricultural pursuits, a competent under- 
standing of all the principles that guarantee success 
is essential ; and while the novice can perhaps 
drive a team, hold a plow, or do other hand work 
about the farm, a success in agriculture naturally 
implies an ability, judgment and discrimination that 
is not given to all men. A wider comprehension of 
facts, of cause and effect, and of physical science, 
is demanded of the agriculturist, than is demanded 
by any other calling in life. 

While the merchant may be able to conduct trade 
successfully and profitably with a proper understand- 
ing of his business, he would fail in managing a 
farm successfully for want of ability and practical 
knowledge of the business. While the lawyer from 
his extensive reading and practice in his profession 
becomes skillful at the bar, or as a statesman, he 
would at the same time lack the acquired, as well 



AND STOCK GROWER. 83 

as the natural ability, to manao^e a farm successfully. 
And while each profession has its advocates and fol- 
lowers who are supposed to be skillful in their vari- 
ous callings, the agriculturist has a no less impor- 
tant and responsible position in the scale of human- 
ity. While the professions are tilled with men ego- 
tistical as to the importance of their several callings, 
from the fact of their training in certain narrow chan- 
nels of thought and investigation, the farmer on the 
contrary has a broader iield of thought and investi- 
gation, and from direct contact in every day life 
with greater diversity of resources of thought and 
investigation, a higher training on broader princi- 
ples fits the farmer for the more responsible posi- 
tions in human life. 

It is from these facts that we notice nearly all 
prominent men of the nation had their early train- 
ing that so stamped their minds and fitted them 
while young to grapple successfully with the various 
obstacles that necessarily overthrow men of weaker 
minds. It is not the hot-bed culture of college edu- 
cation, or a training in the lore of the professions 
that gives power and strength to the mind of man, 
or fits him for the higher positions in civil life. On 
the contrary, these agencies, if not properly made 
use of as a means of development to the intellect in 
a healthy and natural channel, are only a source of 
imbecility and incapacity in the individual. The 
common source of failure in all classes of business, 
is a mania for speculation. The farmer is no less 
liable to this prevailing fault than the merchant or 
other tradesman, and the w^hole American people 



84 THE WESTERN FARMER 

are notorious for vacilation and a spirit of specula- 
tion. A want of some settled policy in business 
pursuits is the great obstacle to success with the in- 
dividual, while the want of a settled financial policy 
in the general government tends to give distrust 
and discontent in all branches of trade, as well as 
agricultural pursuits. An unsettled policy of any 
government as to financial aftkirs, necessarily cre- 
ates an agitated and uncertain condition that natu- 
rally follows through all the various channels of 
trade and commerce, and prevents a decided and 
settled policy on the part of individuals in all the 
various callings in life. The financial as well as so- 
cial condition of a country is suddenly changed and 
broken up by the emergency of war, that is the 
common curse of all nations. 

The artificial values created by the late American 
rebellion, the vast fields for speculation so suddenly 
opened up to all classes of trade and industrial pur- 
suits, that resulted in fast living and liberal spend- 
ing of money by all classes of people, necessarily 
operate as a great evil to the country at large ; and 
when all the various channels of trade and business 
pursuits, as well as values, return to a normal and 
healthy condition, mankind are disposed to find 
fault and complain of hard times. 

The nation returning to a condition of peace, 
and all the various industries of life being restored 
to that regular order that is calculated to give per- 
manent and healthy growth and development to the 
country, the various sources of speculation and sud- 
den wealth to individuals are necessarily curtailed. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 85 

and however unpleasant and unpalatable the fact, a 
change in economy and expenses in living is found 
to be a necessity. 

The sudden change of the industrial population 
of the country to agriculture, as well as the 'liberal 
investment of capital in this direction, on the resto- 
ration of peace to the country, has resulted in an 
over productiveness of agricultural produce, and 
consequently thrown this industry out of balance 
for the time being, and the relative values of all 
other commodities are greatly disproportioned with 
the value of farm produce. 

The natural channels of trade, with the various 
commodities of production, will gradually assimilate 
and find a level, and the natural tendency of the 
law of equalization that governs all industrial pur- 
suits, will surely m time regulate any disproportion 
in the products of a country. 

The liability to extremes that naturally attaches 
to all classes of business, should be studied, under- 
stood, and appreciated by the farmer, as well as all 
other men engaged in the production of wealth, 
through the common agency of industry and labor. 
Although the avocation of the farmer is temporarily 
under a cloud of adversity, he should bear in mind 
the fact that in this country, all other branches of 
business are predicated on the growth of agricultu- 
ral wealth, and only in the prosperity of this branch 
of business is found a guarantee of prosperity in 
other dependent branches of trade and industrial 
productions. 

Again I would caution the farmer against this 



86 THE WESTERN FARMER 

common tendency to speculation, and promising to 
pay that which he has not got to pay. This is the 
common cause of ruin, so eagerly sought, by inexpe- 
rienced and unthinking people, in all business call- 
ings in life. Spend no money until you have earned 
it, and have it to spend, and then spend cautiously, 
prudently, and carefully, as this will be found the 
only reliable sequel to success in any business. 

A common fault with all classes of people is found 
in the fact of their presumtion to be able to pay in 
the future what they do not at the time possess. A 
disposition to gratify immediate wants by borrowing 
and promising to pay in the future, is the great and 
important obstacle to success in business with all 
men. A man gives his note at ten per cent interest 
— this by the holder is looked upon as so much 
property in his possession ; on the contrary, it is not 
property, but a presumption on the part of the giver 
that he will produce or create property to pay, or 
fulfil the promise ; but in nine cases out of ten that 
presumption fails of a full realization, and the note 
maker is in a condition of bondage, a slave at the 
mercy of the one giving him credit. He has used 
the property of another without a proper apprecia- 
tion of its value, or a proper knowledge of his own 
ability to meet the demand. 

While the proceeds of capital invested in agricul- 
ture, under ordinary times of prosperity, will only 
pay three to six per cent interest, with good man- 
agement, the farmer that promises to pay ten per 
cent interest, promises that which he has not got, 
and is therefore a loser in nearly every case, and his 



AND STOCK GROWER. 87 

credit a damage to Mm ; while the holder of ten per 
paper, with homa fide security, has a better invest- 
ment than any class of business engaged in by man- 
kind. Isolated cases, through good luck or good 
management, give to the business man an income 
of more than ten per cent ; this furnishes an induce- 
ment to others to try the same experiment, which 
in nine cases out of ten falls short of the antici- 
pated result, and the borrower or adventurer on 
credit is most always the loser. 

A large portion of the people occupying and 
working lands in the west, are young and inexperi- 
enced, and not a few of these are men that have 
failed in other branches of business, and resorted to 
farming as a necessity. Of these two classes, it is 
quite evident that a large portion of them are labor- 
ing to a great disadvantage, not comprehending 
fully the facts and conditions of success, often chang- 
ing about from place to place, hunting for better 
countries where imaginary fortunes are easily ac- 
quired ; these habitual emigrants forming a class of 
floating population that are of little real worth to 
the country or to themselves. 

This element of population is common to all new 
countries, and is a characteristic of frontier life that 
is only remedied by time and the development of 
the country. To this class of people here referred 
to, as well as to young men who have an ambition 
and desire to accomplish something in the world, I 
would here offer a few words of advice. In the 
first place, stop traveling. "A rolling stone gathers 
no moss," and " three moves are as good as a fire." 



88 THE WESTERN FARMER 

The natural features of the whole western coun- 
try are so nearly of a sameness, that no one locality 
presents advantages of any great importance ; and 
aside from the object of getting hold of cheap lands 
on the frontier, there is no great advantage in lo- 
cality. Secondly, all young men without a proper 
training on the farm, where they have had good 
practical discipline under experienced and able men, 
I would say at once, seek such a position and main- 
tain it for such a number of years as will enable you 
to both lay up a small competence at least, with a 
practical knowledge that you will have obtained, 
which is worth much more for the future manage- 
ment of a farm than the wages obtained for labor. 
Under the guidance of competent and successful 
business men, the young man for a few years will 
acquire that which is of much greater value than 
the wages obtained for labor. ISTo young man, how- 
ever ambitious he may be, or however self-conceited 
as to his own ability, can reasonably expect to make 
any success, in any calling or business, without that 
due preparation which can be had only through the 
advice and experience of older persons. While no 
young man can expect to set up in any mechanical 
trade, or in any profession without proper study and 
application to business, under the guidance of expe- 
rienced masters and teachers, it is no less important 
that the same system of apprenticeship should be 
served on the farm, to fit the young man for future 
success in that avocation of life. 

While a certain amount of skill and practical 
knowledge are essential for success in the mechan- 



AND STOCK aKOWER. 89 

ical trades, or professions, a more comprehensive 
knowledge and judgment, as well as practical train- 
ing and education, are necessary for success in the 
various branches of farming. A wider field for 
investigation, and one calling out the various facul- 
ties of the mind, to a more complete development of 
both mind and body, is here presented on the farm. 
The full development of physical strength so essen- 
tial in any calling in life, is obtained no where else 
except on the farm : and for this reason it is, that 
from the farm is supplied to the various professions 
and other positions in life, the most able and suc- 
cessful men. Many of our fast young men are at- 
tracted to the towns and cities, that have their allure- 
ments for simple -minded people; and as the moth is 
allured by the bright light of the candle, to go in 
and get scorched, so it is with our young people that 
are attracted to the cities — they go in and get 
scorched. The demoralizing habits that are so sure 
to be acquired by young and weak minded people 
in the association of city life, are calculated to unfit 
young people for any usefulness in life. The char- 
acter and habits formed on the farm, and in the dis- 
trict school under the care of strong-minded parents 
and competent teachers, is of greater value to the 
young, and better calculated to give that qualifica- 
tion which fits them for valuable and useful citizens 
in a civil community. The proud and sensitive 
feelings of young men from the farm, dressed in 
their homespun and coarse apparel, cannot quietly 
receive the sneers and scorn of the village dandy ; 
and often from this cause, young men are attracted 



90 THE WESTERN FARMER 

away from home on the farm, to gratify a sensitive 
pride and ambition that so frequently proves the 
ruin of people in all situations in life. 

The young man in his homespun should realize 
the fact that the glossy garb of the village dandy is 
usually the shoddy of the cast off clothing of the 
old countries, which is reproduced and fitted for the 
" western trade," and the clothing itself is a fit em- 
blem, in many cases, of the person wearing it. 

The young lady that will refuse the hand of the 
industrious mechanic or farmer boy, by reason of 
his rustic garb and manners, for the city loafer, will 
in nine cases out of ten, before many years, be 
found engaged in washing, or some other menial 
labor, to support a miserable life. Narrow minded 
and egotistical people so often found in the various 
professions, and fluttering about villages and cities, 
are very apt to treat with scorn and contempt the 
rustic farmer, or other workman in his appropriate 
dress ; but the more sensible portions of even city 
inhabitants, have a better appreciation of moral 
worth, as well as the intrinsic value of the various 
elements of society. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 91 



CHAPTER VIII. 



FARMING IN THE MOON. 



THIS subject I find is one that gives rise to va- 
rious opinions, and probably no one subject 
connected vs^ith every day life calls out so many con- 
tradictory opinions as the subject of the moon's in- 
fluence upon the atmosphere of the earth, or its 
otherwise having a bearing upon the growth of veg- 
etation. A noted divine, when asked his opinion of 
the truth or falsity of modern spiritualism, replied 
that there was doubtless some truth in it, but no 
good resulting to mankind. This subject of moon- 
ology is looked upon very much in the same light 
by many people, and like most other subjects based 
upon natural phenomena, that are not clearly com- 
prehended by the intelligence of man, give rise to 
various opinions and theories, concerning their ori- 
gin, cause, and efi'ect, and moral bearing upon civil- 
ized people. 

I take the ground that any principle of nature that 
is manifest to the sensibility of man, or is in any 
way cognizable by the senses, is one that calls for an 
investigation by man's intelligence; and if any good 
can be found in it, or any practical utility can be 



92 THE WESTERN FARMER 



1 



drawn from it, we should endeavor as far as possible 
to avail ourselves of these advantages, instead of 
standing aloof and allowing the superstitious facul- 
ties of the mind to condemn and ignore, in fear of 
some great moral catastrophe dawning upon the 
earth, through the discovery of some new fact or 
principle in nature. The efi'ects of the moon's in- 
fluence upon the earth, are plainly recognizable in 
many ways, but the agency of this influence upon 
the earth, as well as the extent of this influence, 
seems to be involved somewhat in mystery, and 
scientists disagree as to both causes and efiiects pro- 
duced through the influence of the moon. I take 
the position that the direct agency of this principle, 
and all the various phenomena growing 'Out of the 
moon's influence upon the earth are all traceable to 
that common principle of nature, magnetic power. 
Some scientists maintain the idea that magnetism, 
electricity, heat, and light, are only synonymous, 
and are one common principle of nature, depending 
upon the sun for their generation and continuation. 
While magnetism and electricity are one and the 
same prmciple, and heat and light have a close aflin- 
ity to magnetism, I am of the opinion that magnet- 
ism, or electricity, is a coexistant property of all 
matter, and independent of both heat and light. The 
magnetic power of all planets seems to be propor- 
tioned to their size and density combined, and all 
the primary planets of the solar system, with their 
satellites are effected by each other's magnetic pow- 
er or influence when in such a position in their orbits 
as necessarily brings this power to bear upon each 



AND STOCK GROWER. 98 

other. Our most able astronomers have foretold the 
events of certain conditions to take place in the 
earth's atmosphere, through cosmical agency, and 
the certain relative positions to the earth, of some 
planet necessarily producing an agitated and unusual 
condition of the earth's atmosphere. These various 
influences are brought to bear upon the heat and 
light pertaining to the earth, and through a changed 
condition of the atmosphere a corresponding change 
is manifest in both animal and vegetable life. Also 
a change of condition in the sun's heat and light 
through planetary influences, often causes man to 
mourn, and animal life to suffer, through the agency 
of epidemic and epizootic diseases. 

Vegetation also is eflfected, and the special interests 
of the farmer are more or less governed by these 
agencies. 

The effects of the moon upon the earth are more 
easily comprehended and definable than those of 
the primary planets of the solar system. The reg- 
ular tides of the ocean are traceable directly to the in- 
fluence of the moon, as well as the rise and fall of 
water in wells and springs; remitting springs flow- 
ing at certain times, under certain conditions of the 
atmc^sphere, then ceasing entirely, are facts that 
seem to be incontrovertible, and these facts all de- 
pendent upon certain conditions of the atmosphere. 
A weather table, said to be dictated by the eminent 
Dr. Hirachel, and predicated on certain changes of 
the moon, at a certain hour of the day, having an 
influence upon the weather that could be foretold 
and provided for in advance, was for about sixteen 



94 THE WESTERN FARMER 

years closely observed by myself, and found to be 
quite correct and reliable. 

The moon's influence in controling the condition 
of the atmosphere, to a certain extent, is probably 
true; but instead of its depending upon the light of 
the moon in any way, I am much inclined to doubt, 
but on the contrary is owing entirely to the electri- 
cal condition of the atmosphere. A person who is 
nervously eflected, and is very sensitive or passive 
in receiving magnetic forces, will notice readily all 
these various changes in the atmosphere, and often 
comprehend the changes of the moon without any 
reference to the subject from any outside or appar- 
ent influences. A more settled condition of the 
weather, and a moi-e bracing condition of the atmos- 
phere is plainly perceptible at about the full of the 
moon ; and in the dark of the moon the contrary 
condition is more often true. Many people seem to 
think that planting in the wane of the moon has 
been discovered to prove quite advantageous in pro- 
ducing good crops. What is called moon-blind in 
horses, is a periodical blindness that occurs at a cer- 
tain stage of the moon, and the sight again restored, 
and these periodical changes continue regular with 
the change of the moon. Horses thus affected are 
called moon-eyed, and this periodical affliction is 
doubtless caused by a defective nervous organization 
of the horse. Many diseases peculiar to the human 
family seem to be periodical in their nature, such as 
many types of fevers, running fourteen, twenty-one, 
and twenty-eight days, these periods of time corres- 
ponding with the changes of the moon as to duration. 



AND STOCK (iROWER. 95 



CHAPTER IX. 

DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS IN THE WEST. 

SOME twenty years since, while on a farm in 
Ohio, the disease called, milk sickness among 
horses and cattle, was quite prevalent in some por- 
tions of the country. Cattle and horses were at- 
tacked suddenly and usually died in twelve to twen- 
ty-four hours with all symptoms of poison. 

Investigation by a certain farmer led him to 
believe that a common weed called snake weed was 
the cause of it. This weed, growing two to three 
feet high, with a white blossom on the top, was a 
common weed in most woods pastures, before the 
domestic grasses took root and covered the ground. 
To prove this theory of his, the farmer took a horse 
of little value and forced him to eat this weed. The 
result of it was death to the horse with the same 
symptoms attending the disease in other animals. 

This test was satisfactory to that portion of the 
country. Cattle in grazing would accidentally get 
this weed mixed with their food and death was usu- 
ally the result. In subsequent years this same or a 
similar disease prevailing in portions of the state of 
Indiana became a subject for investigation by the 



96 THE WESTERN FARMER 

farmers, and a certain one believing that it was pro- 
duced by the malarious fogs that arose from the 
ground in certain places deemed sickly, and this fog 
or dew falling upon the vegetation where cattle 
grazed, so poisoned the feed as to produce this fatal 
disease. To tesL this theory a few bundles of sheaf 
oats were spread upon the ground so as to receive 
the falling dew for a few nights, and then raked up 
aud fed to a cow. The result of this experiment 
was death by milk sickness. This test seemed to 
settle the fact as to the cause of milk sickness in that 
vicinity. 

In connection with this disease among cattle, mur- 
rain has also atflicted cattle on the frontier settle- 
ments of the older states, which has usually been 
attributed to poisonous water abounding in parasitic 
life. Swine also have had their scourge under vari- 
ous forms of disease in the same condition of life. 
In connection with the various diseases of animals, 
mankind have also suffered from the various febrile 
diseases induced by the same common cause, the 
decay of vegetable or organic life. 

" Death is the beginning of life," and when viewed 
through the established laws of nature, means only 
a change of organic structure. To refer back to 
the two apparently different causes of one com- 
mon disease, we iind poison from eating a certain 
plant and poison resulting from a falling dew result- 
ing in the. same symptoms of disease. 

This is easily explained under the following hypo- 
thesis : The soil of both localities was quite similar, 
in that condition when decomposition was going on 



AND STOCKGROWER. 97 

to the fullest extent. In Ohio clearing was per- 
formed by cutting down timber which was commonly 
left on the ground to decay, together with forest 
leaves that had gradually accumulated through a 
long period of years, forming a deposit of organic 
matter, that fostered the growth of various plants 
that made their appearance as soon as the timber 
was cut off. 

Now it is a settled fact that the various kinds of 
forest trees act to a greater or less extent as absorb- 
ents, purifying the atmosphere of any malarious 
conditions that would otherwise be injurious to ani- 
mal life. By cutting away the timber, nature inter- 
poses again and furnishes new plant life, that per- 
forms this same office of absorbing the poisonous 
condition of the atmosphere and soil, purifying the 
same; while the plants themselves partake of this 
poisonous nature extracted from both the soil and 
the atmosphere. 

This principle seems to be ever active in nature, 
and conduces directly to the benefit of animal life. 
Where these plants are destroyed by plowing new 
lands, the poison is set free to rise in the atmosphere 
and become injurious to animal life. This principle 
of absorbents seems to be ever acting in nature, and 
tends directly to the benefit of animal life. While 
these poisonous plants are interposed as a^mediator 
for the benefit of animal life, all animals are given 
an instinct to shun them as food. The common 
domestic sunflower is known to be one of the most 
valuable absorbents of impure air. Throughout the 
western prairie, on low bottom lands abounding in 
9 



98 THE WESTERN FARMER 

orgi.inic matter, we notice the wild sunflowers and 
many other plants, some of whioh are used by the 
medical faculty for (killing people) curing diseases 
on account of their active poison. These various 
plants, all to a greater or less extent acting officially 
for the benefit of animal life, either as absorbents of 
malarious poison, thus becoming poisonous them- 
selves, or acting as food for animals. Thus we see 
harmony prevails throughout the animal and vegeta- 
ble kingdom in a normal condition. But as the 
hand of man is interposed and these natural absorb- 
ents destroyed b}^ turning over the soil, and greatly 
increasing this process of decomposition and setting 
free the resulting poison to be wafted over the coun- 
try by the \\inds that carry disease brcjadcast over 
the land, we behold as the result of this, the various 
diseases that afflict mankind and our domestic ani- 
mals. While diseases were more local in the timber 
states, they become more general but less fatal on 
the prairie. !N"o large bodies of timber to interpose 
or correct any baneful influence of the atmosphere, 
disease becomes more general. With the early set- 
tlement of the prairie when but little breaking was 
done, animals as well as mankind were more healthy, 
and cholera among swine was not known. With 
the general turning over the sod and exposing vast 
fields of vegetable matter to decay with no adequate 
relief by natural absorbents, all the various febrile 
diseases arising from malaria in the atmosphere 
afflict the human family, and more especially so when 
we get rain in the hot months; thus hastening de- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 99 

compodition and producing a more poisonous condi- 
tion of the atmosphere. 

AVhile various fevers prevail among the human 
family, cattle and horses seem to be more or less 
afflicted, and especially swine, by coming directly 
in contact with the source of the disease, the decay- 
ing soil, are more generally and more fatally afflict- 
ed than other animals. The common disease called 
" black leg " among cattle is caused by poison in the 
blood arising from this same malarious poison. 
Cattle and swine are often in a diseased condition 
from this cause, when but little outward indication 
of disease is observed in the animals. The sudden 
change of feed with cattle when they are in a dis- 
easf'd condition, taking them from green pasture 
and turning into stock fields often terminates fatally. 
Swine should be kept ofi' from new breaking and if 
possible allowed to run in timber, which to them is 
a paradise. Pure running water is healthy for swine 
as well as all other stock, but stagnant water, always 
infested with parasitic life in warm weather, is inju- 
rious to all stock. 

During the summer of 1871 1 broke about one hun- 
dred acres river bottom land and sowed the same fall 
to rye and seeded to timothy; turned in cattle and 
hogs in the spring of 1872 and had a heavy growth 
of feed during the season. It being broken deep 
and being tough sod did not rot the first year, but 
as the warm weather of 1872 approached it was 
quite evident from the bad stench arising from the 
ground that decomposition was going on to such an 
extent as to endanger the health of all stock in the 



100 THE WESTERN FARMER 

field. I removed my cattle to a more healthy local- 
ity; one colt was left in the field and about two 
hundred head of grown hogs, also about two hun- 
dred pigs. I provided plenty of slack coal and salt, 
which was placed so as to give them all they desired, 
also poured on some coal oil; this they devoured 
greedily. After the heavy rains in August I noticed 
the stench from this ground was very bad, and con- 
cluded my hogs would all die if not taken off to a 
more healthy location. As the pigs were about old 
enough to wean I took one hundred and fifty of 
them and put into a ten acre clover field for the pur- 
pose of feeding; about fifty remained with the old 
stock, and these were turned into a timber lot and 
furnished with plenty of coal and saltwith coal oil, and 
fed corn all they would eat to fit them for market. 

The pigs that were turned into the clover field, 
being out of the timber and without water except 
what was given them, had been well inoculated with 
disease before removing to their new quarters. 
About this time I was myself attacked suddenly as 
I had feared would be the case from the two or three 
days' exposure in getting the hogs oft' this bottom 
field, and was not able to be out for a number of 
days, and did not recover so as to be able to do any 
work for about three months. As I could not at- 
tend personally to the pigs turned into the clover 
field, cholera broke out among them and destroyed 
the most of them. The older hogs and pigs in the 
timber remained free from disease apparently, but 
did not make as much gain for their feed as they 
should have done. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 101 

After feeding about thirty days I concluded to sell 
all ray hogs, about one hundred and fifty being fed 
for market, but as they were not at this time in 
proper condition to ship, the purchaser put them in- 
to a field on the open prairie and continued feeding. 
In a few days the cholera broke out omong them 
and destroyed a large share of them. 

These hogs were mostly blooded stock, Poland 
China, and Berkshire, and crosses between the two, 
and had been well cared for and were good stock. 
The colt left in the field was the only animal left 
after taking out the hogs; and when taken up in 
the fall for the purpose of breaking and fall plowing, 
was observed to have a swelling in the bony part of 
the head, that was the beginning of a disease com- 
mon in portions of the west called "bighead." 

Taking all things into account, this field did not 
pay a large profit for 1872. I give these circum- 
stances in detail to corroborate the theories herein 
advanced. 

The excessive amount of sickness in the west du- 
ring the autumn of 1872 seemed to be more aggra- 
vated in that portion of country covered by the 
August rains; and more especially where drouth 
had prevailed the year previous. Scab and foot rot 
in sheep may have their origin in the same common 
cause, parasitic life originating iu the decomposition 
of organic matter. While the loss of swine annu- 
ally is a large item in the west, a loss fully as great 
not usually noticed results from the bad condition 
of health of both cattle and hogs by which probably 
one-third the profit is lost in feeding off for market. 



102 THE WESTERN FARMER 

While good hogs in a healthy condition will make 
ten pounds gain for each hushel of raw corn fed in 
warm weather, the average bad condition of hogs in 
raising and fattening for market in some portions of 
the country I think will not make more than live or 
six pounds gain for the bushel of cor/i fed. Hence 
the anticipated result of profit in feeding hogs is 
not realized through the west. Many experiments 
in cooking feed for stock have been made, which 
go to show that where a bushel of raw corn will 
make a gain of ten pounds, the same amount of 
cooked corn will make a gain of fifteen pounds. 
For feeding pigs or calves in weaning them off, 
I find it pays well to cook corn or other feed, 
but to cook corn to feed to fattening hogs or cattle 
I am satisfied with the present price of labor and 
price of corn, cannot be made to pay. The prac- 
tice of feeding cattle corn in the ear and having 
hogs to follow is the most econoitiical of any plan 
of feeding. In observing our native cattle in the 
west under their present stunted growth, arising 
from scant feed and a diseased condition of the sys- 
tem, we have a very poor foundation to build upon 
in making beef; and feeding low priced corn to such 
stock results in little or no profit to the farmer. 
From the relative situation of the state of Iowa 
to the market of the world, it seems a necessity that 
we should convert our produce into meat and wool 
as far as possible; but in adopting this system of 
farming in our climate, we must observe certain 
prerequisites in order to guarantee success. The 
first of which is to procure good breeds of stock in 



AND STOCK GROWER. 103 

a healthy condition. The second is to keep those 
animals in a healthy growing condition up to their 
original standard of excellence. 

The common cause of disease in the west, malaria 
arising from the decomposition of newly turned sod, 
is but temporary, and will be remedied by time, while 
the same cause of disease in the older states arising 
from stagnant ponds and marshes, is with them to 
remain as a continued cause of disease not to be 
remedied so quickly. 

With a proper understanding of the causes of 
disease by the farmers of the west, their baneful 
influences can be to a great extent counteracted. As 
a mitigating agency, every farmer on the open prairie 
should grow timber, which will pay him in so many 
ways that it is quite difficult to estimate the value of 
it. All live stock should be supplied with plenty of 
salt and sulphur at all times; sulphur is probably 
the best antidote to parasitic life within the reach of 
the farmer; but as it' is a poison, nmst be used with 
great caution to avoid any bad etfects. Swine can 
be treated successfully by using slack coal where 
convenient, which is cheap and furnishes the needed 
sulphur as well as other valuable properties that are 
beneficial for swine. Salt should always be given 
by mixing with coal. A compound of sulphur, 
black antimony, nitre, and copperas placed where 
swine can have access to it, has proved a successful 
preventive of hog cholera. Carbolic acid is proba- 
bly the most valuable article known to the medical 
faculty as a disinfectant, and every farmer should 
keep it in his house. I have cured very obstinate 



104 THE WESTERN FARMER 

cases of hog cholera with carbolic acid in connection 
with coal oil. 

The mode practiced in the west of feeding corn to 
swine as well as other animals, often produces worms 
of various forms in the stomach and intestines; I 
have observed these worms in some instances work- 
ing in the flesh of swine. The usual symptoms 
attending this condition of worms in swine are 
coughing. The free use of coal oil will effect a cure 
usually. 

Tobacco fed to horses is said to perform a cure for 
worms. Salt and sulphur if used freely will prevent 
this condition of animals. Mange in all animals, 
including scab in sheep and lice on animals is a con- 
dition of parasitic life in the skin, and can be treated 
successfully with a decoction of tobacco applied to 
the skin. Coal oil is also good, but has to be used 
more carefully. White animals are more subject to 
this condition of the skin than those of a darker 
color. 

Sporadic life, or fungi upon plants, is often a cause 
of disease or a bad condition of animals. This con- 
dition of plants, usually called rust, is produced in 
hot days in June and July. This rust may be pro- 
duced by the excessive heat, producing an abnormal 
condition of the plant, and fungi that attaches to the 
vegetable or organic matter in the incipient stages 
of decay is the natural result; or it may arise from 
sporadic life in the atmosphere, occasioned by de- 
composition in the soil going on during the hot days 
of summer. This rust usually attaches to the straw 
of most of our cereals, thus injuring the crop of 



4 



AND STOCK GROWER. 105 

grain as well as the straw. Timothy meadows on 
new land are often badly injured by this rust, and for 
this reason, as well as the bad effects of drouth in 
the autumn months on timothy, I would always 
sow clover and timothy together, for both meadow 
and pasture; clover seems better adapted to our soil 
and protects the timothy. 

This fungi or rust upon hay or straw is an active 
but slow poison, and will, if fed liberally, show its 
effects. In horses the kidneys seem to suffer from 
this poison, and kidney diseases among horses are 
common during the winter while feeding on such 
hay Abortion among cows and other female ani- 
mals is often produced by this rust. Feeding corn 
to excess is a frequent cause of abortion in all of our 
domestic animals; and where corn is fed as in the 
prairie country of the west, injury by foundering 
often results to both horses and cattle; or a condi- 
tion of the system is produced that is derogatory to 
the breeding qualities of the animals. 

The principle of adaptation of animal life to cer- 
tain climates is illustrated in the Texas cattle disease. 
All tropical countries abound in parasitic and insect 
life to a much greater extent than in a more north- 
ern climate. The parasitic life so common to vege- 
tation in a warm climate, while it seems less fatal to 
animal life that becomes adapted to the country, is 
a fatal poison to animal life adapted to a northern 
climate. Texas cattle, under this condition of infec- 
tion, are seemingly healthy, but, brought in contact 
with northern cattle, especially in the summer sea- 



106 THE WESTERN FARMER 

son, impart this parasitic life, which becomes a 
deadly poison to northern animals. 

This was the theory advanced by Prof. Gamgee, 
who was appointed by the United States Government 
to investigate the disease. During the month of 
December, 1851, while spending some time in Central 
America on the Chagres river, in the vicinity of 
where the Panama railroad was being constructed, 
I took some lessons in animal economy, that are 
perhaps worthy of notice in illustrating this subject 
of the natural adaptation of animal life to different 
climates. The Panama railroad company were con- 
structing their road by driving piles to bridge over 
the swamp that extends for a number of miles along 
the Chagres river. The laborers employed were 
Irishmen that were enlisted in this work by the 
promise of high wages, and transported there by the 
ship load. The climate of this locality, although 
abounding in animal life, in a normal condition, to 
a greater extent and in greater variety than most 
any other portion of the earth, did not permit a 
northern man to live longer than about thirty days 
on the average, unless by the constant aid of medi- 
cine. These laborers were buried in the swamp, 
and the supply kept up by importing a ship load 
every few days, until the work was completed. Yet 
here were various animals and birds that enjoyed 
their condition of life to the fullest extent imagin- 
able. Also a species of the human family, more 
brute than human, manifesting a sagacity very little 
above the monkeys that sported among the tree tops 
in countless hordes. These semi-humans, in appar- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 107 

ently perfect condition of health and enjoyment, liv- 
ing on the spontaneous products of the earth as 
natives of the country, illustrating the fact that all 
conditions of animal life have their corresponding 
condition of climate, and are governed by fixed laws 
of nature, that seem to harmonize all physical life 
in a normal condition. This field of animal life 
would afford lessons that a Darwin might take ad- 
vantage of in illustrating the development theory of 
mankind. 

In the month of June, 1850, while crossing the 
mountains to California, our company stopped in 
the region of the foot hills of the Rocky Mountains, 
where feed was rich and abundant, for the purpose 
of recruiting our stock and preparing for the siege 
to come, of crossing the mountains and desert be- 
yond, where feed could not be obtained. In sojourn- 
ing upon this field, prolific with animal life in a 
normal condition, which were feeding upon the rich 
verdure of the soil, and which our stock enjoyed to 
the utmost, an idea came to ray mind that destroyed 
the harmony of the occasion to some extent, which 
was caused by the great number of poisonous rep- 
tiles that threatened death to our animals while 
feeding. And while our cattle and horses were 
many of them bitten, the idea struck me that the 
wild animals were not so much molested, or, if bit- 
ten by these rattlesnakes, did not suff*er from any 
poison. I have since entertained the same idea in 
traveling over different countries. 

The idea of the poisonous rattlesnake inhabiting 
the same nest with the " prairie dog," and all the great 



108 THE WESTERN FARMER 



1 

er I 



variety of animals here congregated, living togeth 
in peacfiil harmony, suggested the fact that each of 
these, even the poisonous viper, was created by a 
wise providence for some beneficient purpose. The 
fact of the venom of the rattlesnake increasing with 
the heat of summer, suggests the idea of a very 
useful ofl&ce held by the rattlesnake, in absorbing 
the poison from the soil or atmosphere, that other 
animals, of a more noble position in the economy 
of nature, might the better fulfil the destiny assign- 
ed them. 

A corroborating fact to sustain this principle is 
found in the extermination of the rattlesnake from 
all countries where the soil has been cultivated long 
enough to destroy the poison arising from malaria 
that attaches to all new lands, and is developed by 
the decomposition of organic matter, that necessa- 
rily takes place to lit it for a higher civilization in 
mankind and a higher order of domestic animal 
life. As to means of resistance that may be wisely 
given to animals in a wild state, to counteract any 
malarious poison or poison resulting from the bite 
of poisonous insects or reptiles, an idea in support 
of such a principle arises from the fact or existence 
of what is called the mad-stone. At this idea of 
the so called mad-stone, the medical profession will 
of course answer with an incredulous smile, as they 
do not find it in their books, and the profession do 
not recognize any such principle in nature, and 
miracles are not given to modern times. But the 
medical faculty all live in "glass houses." What 
one school upholds another denies; what seems to 



AND STOCK GROWER. 109 

be an established fact at one time, is proved by sub- 
sequent investigation and discovery to be false, and 
the doctors disagree. The facts concerning the mad- 
stone, as I have been personally acquainted with 
them, are as follows: Certain parties in Linn and 
Cedar counties, Iowa, have what appears to be a 
small stone that resembles a piece of porous calca- 
reous lime stone, the history of which seems to be 
somewhat traditional, but purported to be a sub- 
stance taken from the inwards of wild animals, of 
the deer species. A number of instances have come 
within my observation, where parties were badly 
bitten by dogs, at the time raving mad with hydro- 
phobia, and by application of this stone to the wound 
all symptoms and sickness arising from the wound 
were immediately removed, and a perfect cure per- 
formed in every case. The stone is applied to the 
wound, which draws so as to produce a marked sen- 
sation throughout the whole system. This stone 
clings to the wound until it fills itself by absorption, 
full of what appears to be a green matter, and when 
full drops off. It is then washed in sweet milk, by 
which process this green matter is cleansed from 
the stone, when it is again applied to the wound and 
filled again, until it will no longer cling to the wound, 
at which time it is considered a cure. This seems 
to operate the same in cases where people have been 
bitten with rattlesnakes. Some cases of long stand- 
ing, where persons had labored under the influence 
of poison from the bite of rattlesnakes, have been 
cured by the application of this stone. 

10 



110 THE WESTERN FARMER 



CHAPTER X. 

EPIDEMIC AND EPIZOOTIC DISEASES. 

IN a previous chapter a glancing view is given of 
some of the diseases common to the country 
v^hich are attributed to causes local or endemic in 
character. And vv^hile these endemic diseases seem 
to come within the comprehension of man's intelli- 
gence in their origin and hygenic treatment, on the 
other hand there seems to he aggravating causes in 
different seasons, and causes not so easily compre- 
hended that change the character of the many local 
or endemic diseases to that condition of general pre- 
valence that renders them national or epidemic in 
mankind and epizootic in the domestic animals. 
This prevalent condition of various diseases that 
seem to affect a large portion of the animal kingdom 
to a greater or less extent, and become national in 
character, seems to forbid the intelligence of man in 
revealing their origin, cause, and treatment. And 
as the origin and final destiny of physical life would 
seem to be forever a mystery not to be comprehend- 
ed by the intelligence of man, so the seeming in- 
harmonious condition of life as manifested by dis- 
ease in mankind, as well as the lower animals, would 
seem to defy the ingenuity of man in endeavoring 



AND STOCK GROWER. Ill 

to form a solution that would give a reliable basis 
for a system of hygene or theraputics. It seems 
quite probable that the aggravating character and 
general prevalence of the various epidemic diseases 
of all countries must be attributed to a principle 
which is cosmical in its nature, and can be under- 
stood in no other light except from a more positive 
knowledge of the physical laws that govern our 
planetary system. In the investigation of the vari- 
ous phenomena in connection with the solar system, 
the nebulous origin of all planets seems to be the 
accepted theory of most, if not all, of our astrono- 
mers. This nebula, occupying the regions of space 
naturally concentrating and forming spheroids, that 
are by an all-seeing eye set in motion in their orbits 
around a common centre, the sun, which seems to 
be the source of life and heat, the great vitalizing 
agency of physical life and the common source of all 
motion through the common agency of the all-per- 
vading principle of electricity. The several primary 
planets of the solar system being accompanied with 
this nebulous matter from which secondary planets 
or satellites (moons) are being evolved and contin- 
ued on their motion around their common centres, 
and thus having a secondary motion, with their 
planets, around the sun at regular periods of time, 
each in its own respective orbit. The luminary 
rings at certain intervals of space surrounding the 
planet Saturn are, no doubt, of this nebulous char- 
acter, and as an illustration tend to corroborate the 
theory of the nebulous origin of the planets. This 
nebulous matter, under the attractive influence of 



112 THE WESTERN FARMER 

the planets, seems to operate as an agency in modi- 
fying the influence of the sun's light and heat, and 
thus give cause for greater extremes of heat and 
cold in our atmosphere, as well as greatly changing 
the electrical principle that seems to be connected 
with and govern all physical life. The conjunction 
of the several planets at regular intervals of time by 
reason of their revolution around the sun, produces 
an agitated condition of the atmosphere surrounding 
the earth that can be foretold and accounted for in 
advance. 

The fact of an eclipse of the sun by our moon 
coming in conjunction with the earth and the sun, 
is usually characterized by a disturbed and agitated 
condition of the atmosphere, especially in the path 
of the eclipse. People in a debilitated condition 
from chronic disease notice readily the changing 
condition of the atmosphere, and from a low and 
desponding condition one day, suddenly change 
with the atmosphere to a condition of apparent 
health and buoyancy of spirits. An approaching 
cold season is usually accompanied by diseases occa- 
sioned by a sudden change of temperature closing 
the pores of the system, and thus retaining the eft'ete 
matter that nature requires should be thrown out of 
the system. This low temperature of the atmos- 
phere, which is often produced through various 
planetary influences combined, tends to aggravate 
and induce various diseases in the animal kingdom, 
and make general or epidemic such as would other- 
wise prove to be only sporadic or endemic. A 
special regard to the principle of hygene and keep- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 113 

ing free from all local causes of disease will usually 
avoid any bad effects resulting from epidemics. The 
great and leading value of medical or hygenic know- 
ledge consists in the fact of our being able to guard 
against disease rather than relying upon any cura- 
tive art. 

In the investigation of this principle of electricity 
iu connection with physical life, it seems an estab- 
lished fact that the ubiquitous nature of this life 
principle cannot be denied. And while it is an all- 
pervading principle of nature, it seems to be oper- 
ated upon and intensified by latent forces, the more 
important of which is the sun. The earth itself, in 
the capacity of a magnet, imparts this principle to 
all matter in connection with its surface. Magnetic 
forces seem to control all vegetable as well as animal 
life. A current of electricity governed by the heat 
and light of the sun is constantly passing around the 
earth parallel with the equator or nearly so, and this 
current of electricity is the controlling influence of 
the compass needle, which at all times vibrates at 
right angles with this current of electricity. The 
mariner, with his compass set to the north star as a 
guide in traveling over the ocean in different longi- 
tudes, finds a variation in his needle with no appar- 
ent cause. This current of electricity is the govern- 
ing power, and accounts for variations in the needle. 
In high latitudes a greater intensity of electrical 
forces is apparent in the atmosphere, and the phe- 
nomenon of the northern lights is based on this 
principle. In north latitude, between thirty-eight 
and forty-four degrees, we notice a greater intensity 



114 THE WESTERN FARMER 

and vivacity in physical life ; mankind are more in- 
telligent, more ambitious, of greater nervous power 
and energy. The western prairie country is peculiar 
for its electrical storms that arise almost instanta- 
neously, and move, as a general rule, from west to 
east^ at a speed of twenty-five to forty miles an hour. 
With very little timber to draw, as conductors from 
the atmosphere to the earth, this overcharged condi- 
tion of the atmosphere gives rise to numerous 
storms, and producing winds that sweep over the 
country unobstructed by any obstacle to break their 
force ; and the impure atmosphere of any miasmatic 
district is wafted over the country, and thereby dis- 
ease becomes epidemic and general instead of local 
in its character. This idea suggests the very great 
importance of growing timber for protection against 
these prevailing winds, as well as acting in the ca- 
pacity of absorbents purifying the atmosphere. The 
peculiar .nervous tendency of most all diseases 
throughout the west is characteristic of the climate, 
and is caused by the highly intensified electrical 
condition of the atmosphere. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 116 



CHAPTER XL 

ORIGIN OF DISEASES. 

AFTER writing the two previous chapters 
with reference to the cause of endemic and 
epizootic diseases, and not being satisfied that the 
theory therein advanced was generally accepted, I 
made further search for authorities on the subject, 
and accidentally came across the reports of Dr. 
Gamgee and H. W. Ravenel, who were appoint- 
ed by the Commissioner of Agriculture to in- 
vestigate the subject of the Texan cattle disease. 
From these reports, as well as from the comments of 
Horace Capron, the then Commissioner of Agricul- 
ture, I herewith submit a few extracts. Dr. Gamgee, 
after investigating this disease for about a year, by 
traveling in the South and dissecting many animals, 
with the aid of the eminent Dr. Ravenel, of South 
Carolina, comments as follows : 

" Scientific men have hitherto failed in tracing 
the distinctive characters of organic poisons which 
differed from each other, and only recognized by 
the very different effects produced on the animal 
economy. Some attack a single species of animal ; 
others induce the same disease in a number of spe- 
cies. The lung-plague poison induces its character- 



llg THE WESTERN FARMER 

istic effects on cattle; the poison of hydrophobia] 
most readily communicated among feline and car- 
niverous animals, is deadly to the omnivora and 
vegetable feeders. Of the peculiar principles which 
tend to the diffusion of those diseases which are 
known to us as indigenous in certain latitudes, and 
which we must distinguish at all times, in classifying 
diseases, from the contagious maladies of no known 
primary source, we have two equally remarkable in- 
stances in the splenic fevers of the south, and the 
carbon or anthrax of many parts of the world. The 
one passes from cattle to cattle ; the other is deadly to 
man, horses, dogs, pigs, and other warm-blooded ani- 
mals." 

In the quite lengthy report of Dr. Gamgee 
on the lung-plague and Texas cattle disease, with 
other allied diseases, arising from what is usually 
called a malarious atmosphere, the doctor does not 
give his opinion as to their origin, but refers to the 
report of Dr. Ravenel, which was made at the same 
time and under the same investigations, with the 
express object of ascertaining the cause or origin of 
the disease. I here give the most essential part of 
the report of Dr. Ravenel, as follows : 

"Attention has been drawn in the last few years 
to the ' Texan cattle disease,' and much interest has 
been elicited as to the nature and cause of this dis- 
ease. 

" In the voluminous and very able report of the 
New York State Commissioners, in connection with 
the ' Metropolitan Board of Health of New York 
City,' this subject has been very thoroughly investi- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 117 

gated, and one of the results which seems to be 
definitely reached is the constant and universal pres- 
ence in the blood and bile of the diseased animals 
of certain cryptogamic forms of vegetation, primor- 
dial spores or cells, and which under the skillful 
manipulation of Professor Hallier, of Jena, have de- 
veloped themselves into distinct fungus plant, which 
he names Coniothecium Stilesianium, after the dis- 
tinguished microscopist on the N'ew York board, 
who first discovered them. Professor Hallier, in 
his letter of December 18, 1868, to Dr. Harris, of 
the Metropolitan Board, says in regard to the plant : 
" Perhaps you may succeed in finding out the places 
where this Coniothecium grows in nature. At all 
events, it is a parasitical fungus growing on plants, 
and to be looked for in the food of wild bullocks." 
Whether my examination of a limited portion of 
the flora of Texas, and comprised in so short a time, 
will throw any light upon these interesting ques- 
tions, I cannot tell. My observations were made 
with as much diligence aud care as I could com- 
mand, and present, as faithfully as I am able to give 
them, the true condition of the pastures and the 
cryptogamic vegetation of the region of country I 
visited. As far as I was able to examine, I found 
no species of Coniothecium on pasture grasses or on 
the dried hay. This I know is only negative evi- 
dence. The spores of these minute fungi, when 
they exist, are generally in great abundance, and 
may be wafted about by winds and carried by rains 
into rivers and pools of surface water which the ani- 
mals drink. The modus operandi of these subtle 



118 THE WESTERN FARMER 

agents of mischief, and the manner in which they 
gain access to the animal system, have long baffled 
the scrutiny of scientific men. To establish the fact 
of direct agency in any of these forms of vegetation, 
and trace satisfactorily the connection between 
cause and efliect, will require cumulative proof of 
very strong and unquestionable character. 

" The phases through which they pass, and the 
different forms they assume at various periods of 
their growth, suggesting an analogy with the par- 
theno genesis in the animal kingdom, is another ele- 
ment of difficulty in the solution of this question. 
Such investigations, however, as those undertaken 
by the New York commissioners, conducted as they 
have been in a truly scientific and philosophical 
spirit, must necessarily result in throwing light upon 
the subject and be ultimately crowned with success." 

In addition to this portion of the report of Dr. 
Ravenel I will here notice that he collected, accord- 
ing to his report, two hundred and eighty-five 
different species of fungi while in Texas. While 
Dr. Ravenel, and others that accompanied the 
expedition to Texas, failed to trace out the 
facts in a manner that w^as calculated to sat- 
isfy them of the truth of the theory of spora- 
dic agency causing disease in animals, and at the 
same time seem inclined to admit the principle of 
the origin of endemic and epizootic diseases, being 
allied with the agency of sporadic life. Commis- 
sioner Capron, in reviewing and summing up the 
history of cattle diseases, in past ages as well as in 
modern times, and the evidence adduced in favor of 



AND STOCK GROWER. 119 

the theory of animal poison having an origin in 
vegetable matter, comments as follows : " Efforts 
are indeed being made to demonstrate the vegetable 
origin of many animal poisons, and it is supposed 
by some that "cryptogamic plants, fungi, etc., not 
only approach more the nature of many forms of 
specific virus, but actually constitute the contagion 
or active 'principle which breeds or propagates 
in the development of small-pox, cholera, the 
plagues of the lower animals," etc. Mr. Capron 
again states that " there is one grave objection to 
all that has yet been done in this interesting field of 
inquiry." " The vegetable forms into which poisons 
are said to pullulate, have not, in a single instance, 
been successfully employed in the reproduction of 
the diseases they have been supposed to generate." 
It would seem to be a question with the commis- 
sioner whether the agency of fungi, so commonly 
found in connection with the diseased condition of 
animals, is really the principle of contagion, or, 
whether it is only the result of disease that has some 
other cause or origin for its generation. 

In the evidence as to the condition of imparting 
the Texas cattle disease, it would seem a settled 
fact that no other agency except that of parasites 
voided in the excrement of Texas cattle could furnish 
the contagion principle that is imparted to other 
cattle coming in contact or rather feeding on the 
same ground. 

The commissioner seems to ignore the fact of the 
spontaneous origin of disease in any form ; but that 
it is only perpetuated by seeds that never die. As 



120 THE WESTERN FARMER 

to this principle of spontaneous origin in disease, or 
in the origin oi' vegetable or animal life, I have, 
after many years investigation and study, been com- 
pelled to admit the truth of it, in order to satisfy my 
own reason. 

It does not seem reasonable that there should be 
a living and latent principle in nature breaking out 
in the form of disease under certain conditions, but 
on the contrary that disease is only a negative while 
life is a positive principle of nature. 

And as to the theory of microscopic life being the 
direct principle or agency of contagion, or whether 
the principle of disease is so subtle as to baffle all 
investigation and experiment, I am inclined to ad- 
mit the former principle, and further believe that 
science will finally settle the question in the affirma- 
tive. This principle of sporadic germs having direct 
connection with the origin of disease is limited to 
local diseases, or those having a local cause that 
seems to be easily accounted for. 

Mankind, as well as the lower animals, are often 
visited with affections in various forms that are not 
traceable to any special or local cause. Epizootic 
diseases often prevail, as in this last winter of 1872-3, 
moving across the continent with the speed of the 
wind, and attacking almost the whole family of the 
equine race, throughout the country as well as ex- 
tending into the western wilds and attacking the 
deer and other wild animals. Almost simultaneous 
with this wide-spread epizootic, an epidemic among 
mankind, with similar symptoms, prevails generally, 
both of which indicate a disturbed electrical condi- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 121 

tion of the atmosphere, and the resultin,^ change of 
a physical condition of mankind, as well as certain 
kinds of animals, is generally apparent. 

To refer again to the prevalent diseases of the 
western prairie, we notice that they are local in 
character, and consequently preventable in a great 
measure, if not entirely so in time. When the 
western prairie shall have been entirely settled up, 
and divided into farms, with permanent improve- 
ments, and the alluvial soil shall have undergone the 
change that will necessarily follow from cropping, 
and the growth of timber on every farm becomes a 
fixed principle of improvement, by established laws 
of our state government, and that higher order 
of civilization that is sure to result from the com- 
bined elements of natural surroundings, then dis- 
ease will be rare, and the endemic fevers among 
men, and epizootic hog cholera among swine, and 
black tongue and similar diseases among cattle, will 
be a thing of the past. 

In the meantime it becomes a necessity to investi- 
gate the causes, mode of prevention, and means of 
cure, if there is any curative principle that can be 
brought to bear. It is a question probably settled 
beyond a doubt, that the prevalent diseases among cat- 
tle and swine, and the various types of febrile diseases 
among mankind, have a close alliance in their ori- 
.gin; and the system of hygenic and medical treat- 
ment, as well as means of prevention, necessarily 
applied in the one class of animal life, would be good 
in the other. 

Wiih regard to the common disease, typhoid fever, 
11 



122 THE WESTERN FARMER 



I 



and its various allies, it has become a settled question 
with the most eminent medical men of the country, 
that no mode of treatment will prevent its natural 
course or run, which usually terminates in twenty- 
one or twenty-eight days; and that instead of calo- 
mel and quinine, the most efficient mode of treat- 
ment is strengthening soups, wine, and fresh air. 

A cotemporaneous debility among cattle, that is 
liable to break out in the form of disease at any 
time, by sudden exposure and change of feed, should 
be counteracted by a constant supply of pure water 
and plenty of salt at all times. I am inclined to 
think that there is more value and virtue in salt 
than most people seem to realize, and an increased 
use of it in a great many instances will save a 
" doctor bill," as well as the life of many a person, 
and valuable animal. 

Cattle should not be turned into stalk fields in the 
fall, and allowed to gorge themselves with dry husks 
and corn, until congestion and inflammation set in and 
destroy the animals. Where cattle are turned into 
the stalk fields in the fall, they should only be allowed 
a short run at a time, and changed to green feed 
with plenty of salt, and then no injury will result. 
The fungi or smut on corn stalks is poisonous, but 
acts only as a slow poison, and no immediate bad 
results will follow from its being eaten by stock. 
Cholera among swine, the great bane of the western 
farmer, has called out a great many opinions as to 
its cause and treatment; but what is successful treats 
ment in one case fails in another; what has suc- 
ceeded as prevention on one farm has failed on 



AND STOCK (GROWER. 123 

another. As I have gone over the ground in another 
chapter, I will add but little here on this prevalent 
disease. 

As a primary cause, having its origin doubtless in 
the decomposition going on rapidly in certain soils 
during the hot months, a condition of debility is 
first established that eventually results in the various 
symptoms attending the disease, that afi'ects swine, 
and often a bad management in feeding suddenly 
develops disease that proves fatal. As in the cattle 
fever of the south, so among swine in the corn dis- 
tricts of the west, very few healthy animals can be 
found in cholera districts, and a condition of general 
debility is the rule instead of being an exception. 
The attending symptoms of this disease or condition 
of debility are found to be almost universally a dis- 
eased liver, accompanied with ulcers, ague cake, and 
abcesses in the flesh. Various forms of worms also 
are found penetrating the flesh in different directions; 
these probably make their way through the intes- 
tines of the animal and become incorporated in the 
flesh. The various transformations attending the 
development of parasitic life, as well as the peculiar 
agency of this principle of contagion, are not yet 
comprehended by the science of man. 



124 THE WESTERN FARMER 



CHAPTER XII. 



STOCK GROWING IN THE WEST. 



UNDER this head I propose to comprise a ter- 
ritory for investigation that naturally divides 
itself into three separate divisions, from the fact of 
the difference in soil and climate that characterize 
these different localities, as well as their different 
relative positons to the markets ol the world. For 
the first division of this field of investigation, we 
will refer to that region comprising Texas, Arkan- 
sas, and other states adjacent to or bordering the 
Gulf of Mexico. Texas at an early day became no- 
ted as a field for cattle raising on a large scale, from 
the natural advantages of a climate without the ob- 
stacles of winter to check the grazing of cattle, at 
all seasons of the year. 

The abundance of rain that is furnished to the 
gulf states, gives feed in a great abundance on open 
ranges, for cattle, so that feeding is scarcely ever re- 
sorted to in any portion of the year. These natural 
climatic conditions give scope to the extensive herds 
that rano^e over the country in a half wild condition, 
and the natural tendency of this kind of life is 
shown in the sem: -barbarous condition of humanity, ,j 



AND STOCK GROWER. 125 

as well as a semi-barbarous race of cattle. New ele- 
ments of a higber civilization from tbe nortb, trans- 
planted to tbis country, will naturally assimilate with 
tbis lower order of physical life; and wbile new ele- 
ments from tbe nortb will for a time tend to improve 
tbe condition of botb animal and buman life, tbe 
natural laws controling all physical life, bold supreme 
control, and tend to reduce and assimilate all tbe 
various elements to one fixed type of life in man, as 
well as tbe lower animals. Tbe heat and moisture 
of this southern climate, together with tbe organic 
matter of tbe soil naturally creates an excessive 
condition of sporadic life that attaches to all vegeta- 
tion of tbe country, in the form of fungi in great va- 
riety of species, as well as poison the atmosphere to 
a greater or less extent. Tbis condition of speres 
fungi and parasitic life, resulting from the peculiar 
condition of climate and soil, and existing in such 
great abundance, has its natural tendency in a debil- 
itated condition of animal life that is common to 
tbe country. 

Tbe higber order of physical life in botb man and 
tbe lower animals, that obtains in the superior at- 
mosphere of a more northerly climate, and especi- 
ally on tbe drift formation of soils, that is more es- 
pecially favorable for greater vitality in animal life, 
is not found and cannot be maintained in tbe cli- 
mate of the south. 

In a report to tbe United States Commissioner of 
Agriculture, by John Gamgee, M. D., who was ap- 
pointed to visit tbe south and investigate tbe Texas 
cattle fever, I find the facts set forth as herein stated, 



126 THE WESTEHN FARMER 

and as this report is probably the most scientific and 
reliable of anything that can be found on the sub- 
ject, I will give in the language of Dr. Gamgee, a 
few ideas in connection with this subject of animal 
life in the south : 

" The splenic or periodic fever commonly known 
as Texas fever, Spanish fever, or cattle fever, and 
which has been observed whenever cattle from the 
states of the Grulf of Mexico have been driven north 
during the summer months, is a disease peculiar to 
the ox tribe, which has never been described as at- 
tacking the southern cattle, and which occurs, in a 
more or less latent form, among them. Its distin- 
guishing features have been most marked in the 
cattle of Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, 
Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, and Indiana, wherever 
these have grazed on pastures previously or simulta- 
neously occupied by herds from Texas and Florida. 
It 18, so far as we have yet ascertained, incapable of 
communication by simple contact of sick and of 
healthy animals; and, in the strict sense of the 
terms, is neither contagious or infectious. It is an 
epizootic disorder, probably due to the food on which 
southern cattle subsist, whereby the systems of these 
animals become charged with deleterious principles, 
that are afterwards propagated and dispersed by the 
excreta of apparently healthy, as w^ell as obviously 
sick, stock. It is not one of the epizootics proper, 
and in its origin and distribution, differs from the 
plagues due to specific animal poisons which are 
common in various parts of the Old World and the 
New. The malady is probably incapable of com- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 127 

munication by inoculation, and the ilesh, blood, and 
secretions of such cattle, have been handled and 
consumed by human beings without the manifesta- 
tion of untoward results. In Texas, cattle of all 
ages, from the time they begin to graze, are afflicted 
with the malady in a somewhat latent and mild form. 
Early in the year many animals die, especially when 
the wet deteriorates the grasses ; and the mortality, 
of which any one can gain evidence in crossing 
Texan prairies and seeing the carcasses, is ascribed 
to poverty. 

" It is, however, a feature everywhere, that cattle 
do not attain the same weight in the south, even on 
the best grasses, that they do in northern latitudes ; 
and this is, no doubt, accounted for by the uniform 
signs of irritation , and even erosions of the stomach, 
enlarged spleen, fatty liver, and sometimes echyno- 
sis in the kidneys. The liver is often congested, 
and the gall bladder distended with viscid bile. 
The spleen is twice, three, or even five times its nat- 
ural size ; and, according to the duration and sever- 
ity of the attack, is more or less broken up and dis- 
integrated in its internal structure. In one case the 
spleen had given away at its base, and hemorrhage 
had taken place into the peritonaeum. The kidneys 
and suprarenal capsules are usually congested. 

" In its course in the south, it resembles the peri- 
odic fevers of man ; is usually sub-acute in form, 
and varies in intensity at different times. The ex- 
pression I have proposed to designate this dis- 
ease, is splenic fever of cattle, from the fact that 
the disease is readily distinguished, as a rule, by the 



128 THE WESTERN FARMER 

enlargement of this organ, coupled, no doubt, with 
other lesions. It is an epizootic disease, allied and 
corresponding to the endemic periodic fevers of 
man, for which the southern states are remarkable 5 
and it may be deemed prudent to use a more gen- 
eral expression than splenic fever, viz., that of peri- 
odic fever of cattle. Splenic fever is readily pre- 
vented, in all cattle north of the Gulf States, by pro- 
tecting them, during the summer months, from the 
pastures and roads on which southern cattle have 
traveled and fed. The prevention of the disease in 
Texas would call for a further and more extended 
inquiry into all the local causes in operation ; but, 
generally speaking, the condition of soils and grasses 
might be altered by thorough cultivation, drainage, 
deep plowing, &c. 

" In texas I have found that feeding corn tends to 
modify the conditions of cattle, and invigorate their 
constitutions ; and much may be expected from the 
corn feeding system rather recently introduced on a 
comprehensive scale. 

" No specific means of cure have been discovered 
for the malady ; and palliation measures consist in 
allowing animals which suffer from the acute form 
of the disease, abundant mucilaginous drinks, neu- 
tral salts, and occasional diffusible stimulants. An- 
imals have recovered when left to nature, as indeed, 
also, when they have been profusely bled and 
purged. 

" Splenic or periodic fever, evidently occurs in 
two forms, and its course may be sub-divided into 
four stages. The first form is an insidious, latent, 



AND STOCK GROWER. 129 

and usually more fatal one. There are few fevers 
that do not at times attack animals in such a way as 
to produce so little general disturbance as to prevent 
their recognition in the living animal. Cases of this 
description occur in rinderpest. I have alluded to 
them in an official report on the lung plague, the 
contagious bovine pleuro pneumonia, of Europe, 
and have witnessed them, in outbreaks of small pox 
in sheep ; but in epizootic maladies, and especially 
in the various forms of anthrax, it is not unfre- 
quently found that animals from districts where such 
diseases arise, indicate, after death, that the healthi- 
est and strongest have suffered, or are suffiiring or- 
ganic changes ^which a special systemic vigor or 
constitutional resistance hides so long as the animal 
is in life. 

" Whether we study the malady as seen by me in 
Texas, or on Smoky Hill, in Kansas, where a sud- 
den shock to the system of a steer, on the occasion 
of its being stampeded, developed symstoms and 
induced death, or look to the other animals, 
apparently fresh and grazing, which indicated an 
abnormally high temperature of the body it is evi- 
dent that a large herd, traveling from the region 
whence splenic fever is propagated, carries not only 
the active cause of such propagation in the systems 
of animals composing it, but the evidence of specific 
disease induced, which remains for an indefinite 
time latent and unobserved. 

" In those parts where the splenic or periodic fever 
of cattle is epizootic, the prevailing influences are 
such as favor the development of intermittent dis- 



130 THK WJISTBRN FARMER 

ease in man. There are parts more healthy than 
others, and the beneficial eflects of constant winds, 
a dry soil, adequate elevation, and the introduction 
of good systems of culture, tend to make many 
regions in the vast countries over which malarious 
conditions prevail favorable for the health of man." 

"In the most swampy parts these diseases annu- 
ally recur with the intense heat of summer which 
are known to characterize low and unhealthy lands 
in all parts of the world, and these often persist 
even in the winter season. The bilious remittent 
and intermittent fevers in man are represented in 
animals by the deadly charbon or anthrax, the black 
tongue of domestic and wild ruminants, as also by a 
marked form of the splenic fever which I am de- 
scribing. Texas and Florida have been chosen as 
resorts for invalids — for consumptive people during 
the winter. They are countries, that to cast a doubt 
over the salubrity of Texas might lead any one into 
difficulties in that state." 

"It is not too much to say of the state that its 
acclimatized inhabitants prefer to live there rather 
than choose what might be viewed as a healthier 
climate farther north. But it is impossible for an 
unprejudiced stranger traveling through the state, 
not to observe the usual spare habit of body, the 
sallow, yellowish complexion, and the want of activ- 
ity that prevail among the inhabitants. There are 
exceptions and exceptional spots, but any one trav- 
eling from Maine to Texas can satisfy himself that 
some condition, whether of soil or climate, is unfa- 
vorable to the health of man. 



AND STOCKGROWER. 1 81 

"I had not anticipated witnessing the universal in- 
dication of a low standard of health in animals. 

" Inquiries as to the diseases of Texan cattle in 
Texas are almost always met by people of that state 
by the declaration that cattle are never sick there ; 
yet a "norther" may sweep down and drive the 
cattle into a narrow neck of land, where they have 
to starve at times for want of food; while in the 
winter excessive wet destroys the grasses, favors 
diarrhcea, and unless the cattle can get in the woods 
and eat swamp moss, wild onions, or other products 
of the river bottoms, they must occasionally suc- 
cumb. We hear so much of cattle being only worth a 
few dollars a head in the summer, and people kill- 
ing them by the thousand for their hides and tallow, 
that the only reason to be given for heavy winter 
prices is the scarcity of really fat stock, and the 
great distance it has to be driven, even to such a 
port as Indianola. 

" I have seen many large herds of Texan cattle 
that had been wintered in Illinois, Indiana, or Mis- 
souri, and have made myself acquainted with the 
average run of weights of cattle in Texas, and one 
most important fact appears; viz: that a Texan steer 
will increase, in twelve months, on the grasses of a 
more northern latitude than his native state, by one, 
two, and three hundred pounds over and above the 
highest weight he will ever attain in Texas. Let 
us take the cattle fed on the Mesquite, said to be fat 
all the year round — and where, therefore, an animal 
has not to make up for lost condition — and age for 
age, it will take three of them to weigh down the 



132 THE WESTERN FARMER 

Illinois steer, and probably four. Take the best and 
the average, and it will be found, on careful exam- 
ination, that the cattle on the noted grasses of Texas, 
whether from the soil, heat, or waters, or other 
cause, do not attain the weight and condition that 
the same cattle do if removed to the north, nor that 
northern or western cattle do on their own native 
prairies. 

What are the active causes in operation which 
tend to influence prejudicially the stamina of south- 
ern herds ? Traveling over the prairies, no one can 
fail to be struck by the large number of dead ani- 
mals to be met with. The dissection of these, or 
the slaughter and dissection of the first animal met 
with, reveals three distinct and unfavorable mani- 
festations. The spleen is enlarged; the animals 
have, without exception, the "ague cake" — the 
stamp of a malarious district ; the liver is fatty, and 
this is a lesion that might be anticipated in so warm 
a county ; the true stomach is reddened at its left 
end, the membrane is eroded, or appears scratched 
with a sharp nail on its folds, and although there 
may be only a single and small erosion, nevertheless 
the trace of gastric disorder is there. I have not 
failed in a single instance in Texas, to trace this, and 
I have opened as many as twenty-six animals per 
day, weighing the organs carefully, and watching 
closely for these signs. Sometimes the scars of old 
ulcers are more marked than the erosions on the 
mucous folds, and it is not uncommon to find these 
traces of ancient lesions about the pylorus, or intes- 
tinal opening. My observations extend further. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 133 

From the earliest age that the calf feeds on grass, to 
the oldest a ballock attains, the morbid lesions allud- 
ed to are found. 

"It is difficult to get at the truth, but from per- 
sonal observations, and very careful and numerous 
inquiries, I am in a position to state that almost, if 
not quite, universally in the states bordering on the 
Gulf of Mexico, and for a distance of at least two 
or three hundred miles inland, the cattle do not at- 
tain the full weight they can and do roach else- 
where; that they very commonly appear in bloom- 
ing health, and are usually free from acute and 
marked symptoms of any disease; that nevertheless, 
these animals are usually more aneemic and less 
firm than northern cattle, and that, without excep- 
tion, all of them that I have dissected have shown 
the spleen enlarged to twice or thrice its usual 
weight, the liver slightly or very fatty, and the true 
stomach reddened and eroded. The removal of 
these animals to a more northern state results, es- 
pecially as winter approaches, in a diminished size 
of spleen, a great deposit of fat and development of 
blood and muscle, and the cicatrization of the gastric 
lesions. 

" Conjecture is not always profitable, and as yet 
it IS impossible to say more with certainty than that 
in a warm country, where a rich and retentive soil 
is ever charged with considerable moisture, and 
where artificial systems of culture are in their in- 
fancy, a general low tone of system prevails, which 
manifests itself in the shape of an imperfect devel- 
opment of blood, an enlargement of blood glands, 

12 



134 THE WESTERN FARMER 

and verv significant lesions of the stomach and 
liver." 

I have quoted quite extensively from the report of 
Dr. Gamgee, as this report is doubtless the most 
reliable of anything now published concerning the 
natural adaptation of the territory that it covers. 
Dr. Gamgee, in his researches and labors in the 
soutli, acted upon no principle that would tend to 
give any other but a true and reliable report of the 
natural condition of animal life, and the special 
adaptation of the country. This valuable informa- 
tion I am inclined to think will tend to correct in a 
measure the too prevalent opinion of greater na- 
tural advantages being possessed bj" the people of 
the " sunny south." While this report only covers 
one class of animals, we find that by a parity (jf 
reasoning, the same condition of soil and climate 
that produces the semi-barbarous Texan cattle would 
show no better results in the development of other 
classes of animal life. The few specimens of half 
savage swine and semi-barbarous sheep, of very 
little value for any purpose, are the natural products 
of this region of country. As beasts of burden and 
labor, the mule and camel readily adapt themselves 
to this country and thus give promise of success in 
the special branches of agriculture adapted to this 
country. While live stock growing in the southern 
states is not a success, cotton and sugar afford a 
source of income that pays probably as well for 
money and labor invested as any other branch of^ 
industry in the country. 

With the Mississippi river and its tributaries, 



AND STOCKGROWER. 135 

which aftbrd cheap transportation for the exchange 
of commodities with all portions of the north, the 
sure devek)pment of the south to a higher position, 
financially, civilly, and morally, is only a matter of 
time. While wheat cannot be raised in the west, 
south of 39° north latitude, for less than $2.50 per 
bushel, on the average, it can be raised in a more 
northerly climate and shipped to the south for a 
little more than half this money. And while the 
upper Mississippi country does not produce sugar 
and cotton, an increasing demand for these articles 
in the north will furnish, eventually, a market for 
all surplus that can be grown in the south. 

Through the cheap means naturally afforded by 
water communication between the north and the 
south, for the exchange of commodities, the density 
of population, and corresponding wealth of the 
northern states is sure to bring a corresponding de- 
velopment of wealth in the south. 

The Mississippi and its tributaries with the adja- 
cent country will become to the New World what 
the Nile was to the Old World in the zenith of her 
glory. While an advanced civilization and powerful 
people was developed at an early day in the east, 
which had the Nile for its central artery of hfe, the 
New World is sure to produce the record of a nation 
on a more extensive scale, of tenfold greater magni- 
tude in wealth and national development, as well as 
superior intelligence on a higher plane of life, — a 
nation with no parallel in the world's history, and 
for its central artery of life and vitality, the Missis- 
sippi and its tributaries, with the adjacent country. 



136 THE WESTEKN FARMER 

which will become the great central life-giving prin- 
ciple of the nation. What the Nile and adjacent 
country was to the Old World the Mississippi will be 
to the New. The great centralizing seat of wealth 
and prosperity, the heart of the nation, from which 
will ramify the various veins and arteries of trade 
that will course through the body of the nation as 
the blood through the human system, and to return 
again to the seat of life for new vitality to continue 
the onward course of life. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 137 



CHAPTER XIII. 

UNDER the second division for investigation as 
to the subject of stock growing, I will include 
the states of Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, 
Iowa, and the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota on 
the north. This may be considered as the grain-grow- 
ing region of the west, and from the fact of its 
peculiar alluvial soil, which is almost inexhaustable, 
might be considered the bread and meat producing 
portion of the continent. Having that diversity of 
soil that is adapted to the various kinds of grain, as 
well as all the domestic grasses, it affords facilities 
for both grain growing and stock growing that are 
not possessed by any other portion of the American 
continent. With these natural advantages of soil we 
may also notice that no other equal portion of terri- 
tory on the earth has greater advantages of pure, 
running streams of water, so diversified over the 
surface that no large portion of territory is deprived 
of runiiing water. Coupled with this we might also 
mention that water is easily and cheaply obtained 
from wells that afford a plentiful supply, generally 
near the surface. 

The climate of this portion of country, even with 
the transient cause of malaria arising from the de- 
composition of the newly turned sod, is found, on an 



138 THE WESTERN FARMER 

average, to be as healthy, naturally, and as exempt 
from local diseases as any portion of the American 
continent, and enjoying a much more healthy 
climate than states farther south. This whole re- 
gion of country, or nearly so, having a porous soil 
that water quickly penetrates and filters through 
without leaving ponds, swamps, or marshes, to form 
a constant source of disease to the surrounding 
country, as in some of the older states. 

The climate is one that is specially adapted to the 
healthy development of all classes of animal life; 
and from the naturally pure and salubrious atmos- 
phere, which is not subject to any superabundance 
of moisture, lung diseases are scarcely known, ex- 
cept in some cases where the afflicted of other states 
come here for recuperation and restoration ot health. 

The invigorating and vitalizing atmosphere gives 
great power, strength, and activity to mankind as 
well as the laboring animals, and this fact, together 
with the fact of so few stormy days in a year, en- 
ables the farmer and out-door laborer to accomplish 
more work than can be performed in any other 
country. The whole equine race, horses and mules, 
are generally healthy, and suffer from no local dis- 
eases, except such as are induced from bad feeding 
and management. The highly electrical condition 
of the atmosphere gives superior nerve-power and 
activity to the horse as well as man. The high tem- 
perature of mid-summer's heat seems to be endured 
much better by the mule than by the horse : and for 
this reason the mule, as a laboring animal, is gener- 
ally preferred, and will gradually take the place of 



AMD STOCK GROWER. 139 

the horse for hnrd farm service. The mule is less 
liable to disease, endures hardships better, and on 
less food, and is of longer life for service. 

Corn, the great staple crop of the prairie, so easily 
raised, so certain a crop, and so valuable for its meat 
producing qualities, and being a grain that does not 
bear transportation any long distance, necessarily 
limits in a great measure the business of the western 
farmer to that of growing beef, pork, and mutton, 
as well as wool, and butter, and cheese for the most 
reliable source of income. This being the fact, 
live stock that will, to the best advantage, and with 
the most profit, produce these commodities, becomes 
the important subject to the western farmer. What 
are the kinds of stock? What the most important 
conditions of success in growing and feeding ? are 
the leading questions of the western farmer. For 
beef purposes the grade " Short Horn " steer, of one- 
half, three-fourths, or seven-eighths blood at two 
years old past, probably fills the demand for a beef 
animal with the most value for the cost, and with 
the most profit for the feed. This class of animals, 
fitted for the market at the age of two and a half to 
three years, with a gross weight of fourteen hundred 
to sixteen hundred pounds to the head, pays better 
for the keeping, sells for a larger price, and is more 
satisfactory to the feeder than any other animal that 
can be handled, for beef. This is no doubt admitted 
by all farmers, and consequently no grounds for 
controversy on this point. The mode of raising 
and feeding in the west, necessarily will vary, even 
with competent stock growers, as the circumstances 



140 THE WESTERN FARMER 

of ditferent farmers are quite various. In raising 
stock on a small scale where but few cows are kept, 
and with sufficient help, the milking of cows and 
feeding the calves is the usual practice in the west. 
On a large scale it is better to let the calves suck 
the cows, but kept away or not allowed to run with 
the cows. Calves should be separated from the 
cows, and allowed to suck twice per day at least, 
and three times are better. The cow should be 
milked the first few days after calving so that no 
surplus milk should be left after the calf has taken 
all that it will. It will pay better to give the calf all 
the milk furnished by the cow, until it is 
five months old, at least, as a stunted calf 
never will make a thrifty animal, and no food is so 
well adapted to the health and growth of the calf 
as the new milk of the dam; and a calf that is 
allowed to suck the cow will do better on eight 
quarts of milk per day than one fed on twelve quarts 
per day; this seems to be the natural mode of re- 
ceiving its food and the calf does not gorge itself 
as is the case on being fed. Some farmers are fre- 
quently so situated that it becomes necessary to let 
the calves run with the cows in the pasture, md 
while the calves will do full as well in this way it is 
bad on the cows, and where practiced the udders of 
the cows become contracted in size and the partial 
loss of the udder very frequently happens. In the 
weaning of calves and artificial feeding of skimmed 
milk with shorts, &c., I think there can be no profit 
in the long run, as what is gained in butter is more 
than lost in the value and growth of the calf 



AND STOCK GROWER. 141 

Calves should be allowed good pasture in summer 
or extra feed in winter after three months old, as 
they will usually at about that age take all the milk 
of the cow and begin to eat extra food. Calves that 
are dropped in the fall or earl}' winter will not make 
as large or thrifty animals as those dropped in spring. 
The open field and sun's heat are necessary for the 
growth of all young animals. This is their natural 
element, and all young animals should be dropped 
in the spring, especially in a cold or northern 
climate. Calves dropped in the fall or early winter 
will require careful feeding during a portion of the 
winter, and the feed best adapted to their growth is 
cooked corn with shorts, and a supply of good tim- 
othy hay. It will pay the farmer well to prepare 
some mode of cooking shelled corn for all calves, so 
that they may be kept growing through the first 
winter of their lives, after which there is little 
trouble in wintering on raw food. 

It will pay the farmer well to cook corn for milk 
cows during the winter, also all calves and pigs ; but 
beyond this I think in this western country with 
cheap grain there is no profit that is adequate to the 
cost of the extra labor and expense. Corn is gen- 
erally fed too much to all young stock by western 
farmers, from the fact of its being cheaper, more 
plenty and more easily handled. Shorts are valu- 
able as a feed to all young stock; pigs and calves 
will do much better where fed (m one-half shorts 
and one-half corn mixed ; the corn to be cooked. 
Where mills are convenient, corn and oats in about 
equal quantities can be ground together, and for all 



142 THE WESTERN FARMER 

stock that is fed in stable in winter tliis form of grain 
feeding is the most convenient, and doubtless the 
most economical. 

All breeding animals should be fed largely on 
oats, either whole or ground with corn; and for 
work horses, especially in warm weather, oats should 
be the main food. For all young stock, oats should 
form a large portion of their feed in the absence of 
shorts. 

In the process for feeding for beef and pork, the 
common practice in the west of feeding cattle and 
hogs together, and feeding mostly on shock-corn in 
winter, has an advantage over all other systems of 
feeding for economy and prolit. 

One important advantage, however, in feeding any 
stock for market, I think is generally overlooked 
by most feeders. This is the practice of summer 
feeding or feeding fattening animals while on grass. 
It is a notorious fact that two-thirds of all the cattle 
fed in the west, are put into the market only half 
fed, and consequently not more than half the profit 
is realized that should be from such feeding. We 
will take, for instance, a steer, such as are purchased 
usually at two years old past, during the summer at 
about thirty dollars, weighing say nine hundred 
pounds ; he is kept on grass until cold weather in 
the fall, and changed to corn. It is found to be 
good feeding that puts on two hundred and fifty 
pounds during the winter, with one hundred bushels 
of corn, and in such a winter as 1872 and 1873, 
about one hundred and fifty pounds would be a lib- 
eral estimate for the amount of grain. A steer 



AND STOCK GKOWER. 143 

costing say thirty dollars, and fed one hundred 
bushels of corn at a cost of twenty dollars more, 
making fifty dollars cost at three years old, with a 
weight of say eleven hundred pounds, allowing for 
good feeding and good stock (common stock under- 
stood), worth at home four dollars and fifty cents 
per hundred or forty-nine dollars and fifty cents for 
the steer marketed at this age; and allowing the 
gain accruing to hogs fed with cattle to pay for the 
summer pasture and labor of feeding in winter, we 
find, with good management and good luck, that 
at the above figures, which are about the proper 
estimate for the spring of 1873, and where cattle 
have had good protection from storms and fed and 
watered properly, the above figures of two hundred 
pounds gain for one hundred bushels of corn would 
be a fair estimate, so that where corn has been pur- 
chased at fifteen cents per bushel a small margin 
of profit is the result 

Now we will take these half-fed three year old 
steers and put onto grass, say for six months, with 
liberal feed on tame pasture at a cost of eight dol- 
lars each for pasture and fifty bushels of corn fed 
during the summer at a cost of ten dollars more, 
making a cost up to the next winter of twenty dol- 
lars per head to cover all cost, and we have at this 
time a steer three and a half years old costing 
seventy dollars with one year's feeding. Now, any 
experienced feeder will agree with me that if a steer 
will put on two hundred pounds gain during the 
winter for one hundred bushels of corn he will put 
an additional gain for the six months of summer 



144 THE WESTERN FARMER 

witb good pasture and fifty bushels of corn, three 
hundred pounds gain, and at this time will be ripe 
for the market, and bring say five and one-fourth 
cents per pound, or seventy-three dollars. The gain 
on hogs fed during the summer we find is about 
double that fed in the winter, and would be, say 
eight dollars more gain on the same feed, or eighty- 
one dollars and fifty cents, or eleven dollars and 
fifty cents profit over and above what would be 
realized the six months previous, and the feeding 
still on for six months more or until four years old, 
would give a correspondingly higher price per 
pound, and a corresponding profit. 

For another illustration of feeding we will take, 
say a half blood c)r three-fourths blood "Short 
Horn," which, if kept on reasonable good feed until 
two years old, will, I find by experience, weigh about 
twelve hundred pounds on the average, and this 
steer at that weight is worth four cents per pound, 
or forty-eight dollars, and will during the next six 
months, with the same feed allowed the native steer, 
gain four hundred pounds and weigh sixteen hun- 
dred pounds at the same time the native weighs 
fourteen hundred, and while the native will bring, 
say five and one-fourth cents, the grade Short Horn 
will bring six cents, which is ninety-six dollars, and 
allowing the cost of the feeding, say twenty dollars, 
making cost in all at, say thirty to thirty-two months 
of age sixty-eight dollars, we find we have twenty- 
eight dollars profit where we had eleven dollars and 
fifty cents profit en the native ; but here is another 
item still left out, as it will be noticed that the 



AND STOCK GROWER. 145 

native steer in this calculation is one year the oldest 
at the time it is put into the market at a weight of 
fourteen hundred pounds. This one year's differ- 
ence in age we will estimate at eighteen dollars, 
which added to sixteen dollars and fifty cents as the 
difference in feeding capacity of the two steers, and 
we have thirty-four dollars and fifty cents in favor 
of the Short Horn steer. Now these figures are for 
a good native steer and a good grade Short Horn 
steer, and are as near the facts as my experience and 
observation can make them, and I think will be cor- 
roborated by all experienced breeders, or those that 
have had experience with Short Horn cattle. 

But some one may reply that it takes more money 
to invest in Short Horns, and the cost of a Short Horn 
bull is quite a little sum. We will investigate this 
part of the subject a little, and say a good Short 
Horn bull costs three hundred dollars, and the inter- 
est on this would be thirty dollars for one year, and 
say a scrub is worth thirty dollars and the interest 
is three dollars per year, and the cost of keeping 
the same in both animals, leaving a difference in 
annual cost of twenty-seven dollars. Now we will 
refer back and note the fact that we set the price on 
the native steer at thirty dollars, and on the grade 
steer at forty-eight dollars, both the same age, past 
two years old, or say thirty months. Now we will 
presume the farmer raises his own steers for feed- 
ing, and the cost of keeping is the same at the age 
referred to, thirty months old. It will be readily 
noticed that the Short Horn is estimated worth 
eighteen dollars the most, and this is credited to the 
13 



146 THE WESTERN FARMER 

cost of bull, and that twenty calves are raised in 
one year by the farmer, at an average value of 
eighteen dollars each above the value of native 
steers, or in all three hundred and sixty dollars profit 
for use of Short Horn bull in one year. 

It is on this plan of having good animals and 
feeding well from the time the calf is dropped until 
it goes into market, that the western farmer may be 
enabled to keep the skeleton out of the corn crib. 

About the first of January, 1872, I sent a barren 
Short Horn cow into the Chicago market for beef, 
which was sold for seven cents per pound, and came 
to ninety-seven dollars, but this was a small cow, 
below the average size, and a common size Short 
Horn cow should weigh at least sixteen hundred in 
condition for beef, which at seven cents per pound 
is one hundred and twelve dollars. At the same 
time good native steers were selling in the same 
market at five cents per pound on an average weight 
of twelve hundred pounds, or sixty dollars each. 
Now of these two animal e the cost of raising would 
be about the same, and while one would give no 
profit in the raising, or only cover about cost, the 
other would give from forty to fifty dollars profit. 

Now these are figures that show for themselves, 
and such facts should convince any farmer as to the 
advantage of keeping none but good stock, and 
feeding well and taking good care of all animals. 

The business of raising: any kind of stock is 
necessarily one of constant care and watchfulness, 
in order to meet with a full success, as in most other 
callings in life. Every animal on the farm should 



AND STOCK GROWER. 147 

be seen by the owner every day, or by some one 
competent and trusty to care for them. 

In breeding any kind of stock all inferior animals 
should be rejected or put into the market for what 
they will bring, and only good animals of either sex 
used for breeding purposes. I notice a common 
habit with most farmers of the west is to breed ani- 
mals too young. Bull calves one year old purchased 
for immediate use, and then crowded beyond their 
capacity; also boar pigs being used at six months, 
or just as soon as they are found capable of serving. 
This practice is injuring the stock of the country 
and gradual degeneracy is sure to result. ITo young 
bull should be used before eighteen or twenty 
months old, and but little before two years old. I 
never use swine for breeding of either sex until 
after eighteen months old, as I should not expect to 
make any great success at raising swine if used 
younger. 

In growing cattle and horses, as well as mules, 
there seems very little obstacle to success on the 
western prairie, as these two classes seem both well 
adapted to the country, and with ordinary care and 
feeding, nothing hinders success ; but when we come 
to swine we have a different subject to deal with, and 
one on which there is a greater diversity of opinion. 
The different breeds have each their special favor- 
ites, and the debilitated condition and disease of 
swine throughout the west cause much speculation, 
and many theories as to the true cause of the vari- 
ous diseases. 

Under the chapter on diseases of animals, I have 



148 THE WESTERN FARMER 

treated on this subject to some extent, and will not 
here take up any more space on the subject. As a 
means of economy and success, swine should, as far 
as possible, be fed with cattle, and allowed salt at all 
times where they can get at it : and at such seasons as 
disease is prevalent, a mixture of salt, ashes, and slack 
coal, if convenient, with black antimony and sulphur, 
should be provided. Carbolic acid and coal oil are 
also good as a disinfectant and preventive. The 
proper way to furnish salt for swine or sheep is to 
use say sixteen foot plank twelve inches wide and 
one and one-half inches thick with two edges nailed 
together, in the shape of a V trough, and fastened 
to the ground stationary by nailing to end pieces 
driven into the ground. The end pieces should 
extend about eight inches above the top of the 
trough and a board sixteen to eighteen inches wide 
fastened about eight inches above the trough as a 
cover to keep out the rain, and keep sheep or hogs 
from getting into the trough. This permanently 
fixed in this way will last for a number of years, and 
not be required to be cleaned out, if properly con- 
structed so that only the heads of animals can be 
got into it. For cattle, the same kind of a trough 
should be constructed about four feet above the 
ground so that no other stock can get into it, and 
every pasture field should have a trough constructed 
on this plan, and kept supplied at all times with salt 
and other ingredients demanded by stock. 

For cattle and sheep one bushel of salt and about 
six or eight ounces of sulphur mixed, should be 
used. For swine a larger portion of sulphur should 



AND STOCK GROWER. 149 

be used in the summer months, in connection with 
the salt. In breeding of swine, pigs should gener- 
ally come in April or May, and only one litter each 
year for profit and success. The sows should be 
kept in small lots, with dry shelter, and the pigs 
never changed from the place where they were 
dropped until after weaning time. Five or six sows 
can be kept in one lot and if the pigs are all drop- 
ped nearly at the same time, as they should be, they 
will suck the different sows, and any sow losing a 
portion of her pigs will readily adopt others, where 
they are crowded out, and a larger number of pigs 
raised in this way. Pigs will do much better to 
remain in the same yard through the season, and 
not be changed from where they first commenced 
feeding. Shade of some kind and plenty of drink 
must be provided. Slops from the house, soap-suds 
and all refuse can be turned into the swill barrel to 
good advantage. A swill barrel can be constructed 
by using a kerosene barrel, suspended between two 
wheels on the plan of a hand- cart, so that one hand 
can run it, even if filled, and by tipping over empty 
directly into the pig-trough. A stinking swill bar- 
rel is not agreeable or wholesome, near the dwelling 
of civilized people, and should be kept at proper 
distance. The swill barrel rolled off every day and 
emptied and rolled back empty, avoids any nuisance 
about the dwelling. No manure heaps of any kind 
should be allowed to remain through the summer 
within forty rods of a dwelling house. The sick- 
ness and ill-health so common to towns without 
police regulations is mostly originated by the accu- 



150 THE WESTERN FARMER 

mulation of filth ; and the pig-pen, which is the next 
door neighbor to most out lot village residences, 
forms largely the source from which the doctors 
draw their living in towns, as well as in the country. 
The natural food for swine seems to he something 
of a succulent nature, and breeding sows, and pigs, 
especially, must have most of their food in the form 
of slops and swills. The milk from the dairy seems 
almost indispensable to grow fine pigs. Shorts with 
corn meal, and ground oats, in the form of swill, or 
cooked feed, is the best adapted to pigs, and sows 
giving milk,' and is essential to grow good hogs ; 
and this feed, with salt used daily, will keep away 
cholera, and most all diseases common to swine. 
Good clover pasture, in summer, is the cheapest 
food that can be furnished for swine, but the reed- 
ing of some grain, daily, with pasture, will pay 
much better, and the pig, as well as the steer, should 
have the fattening process performed during the 
warm months, on pasture ; as about twice the value 
is received for a bushel of corn fed in this way, as 
compared with winter feeding. 

As to the dift'erent breeds of swine, there is, prob- 
ably, not as much difi'erence as many would seem to 
think. Of the various breeds, I have selected the 
Berkshire and Poland China, which I breed distinct 
and pure, as well as crosses. For common stock 
purposes Berkshire boars crossed on Poland China 
sows seem to do as well as any. The Berkshire 
seems to be gaining ground over the other breeds 
in the west, but I think one reason of it arises from 
the fact that Berkshires are mostl}^ bred in the east, 



AND STOCK GROWER. 151 

where swine are more healthy, and not so generally- 
debilitated by disease, as some other breeds in the 
west, and are consequently more vigorous, and pro- 
duce better success in breeding ; although the Berk- 
shire is the most thoroughly established breed, and 
produces its like more certainly than other kinds, and 
is probably better adapted to a northern climate than 
any other breed, yet there are other breeds that 
might have advantages over the Berkshire in a more 
southern climate. 

It appears to be a fact that dark colored animals 
are generally more liardy, in the western climate, 
and perhaps constitutionally so in all climates. 
White hogs, with me, have usually suffered more 
from disease than black ones. 

As I have had about one thousand acres of prairie 
broken on my farm in the past three years, I have 
had to combat disease among swine quite diligently; 
but all swine kept on solid ground on timber land, 
have escaped disease entirely, and hogs that I pur- 
chased from others, to run with feeding cattle, and 
that were affected by disease more or less, generally 
recovered, and after a time took on flesh reasonably 
well, when kept and fed on hard ground in timber, 
with a running stream of water, and gravelly banks 
and bottom to the stream. I have cured some 
cases that were very bad, and lost none except when 
my own personal attention was necessarily called 
away at the time when disease was prevalent in the 
neighborhood. 

As to the subject of gain for a given amount of 
feed, there seems to be so many conditions that in- 



152 THE WESTERN FARMER 

fluence the feeding capacity of swine, as well as 
other animals, that it is very ditHcult to establish 
any rule or principle that can be relied upon for the 
amount of flesh that can be obtained for any given 
amount of feed. 

The weather has much to do in the matter of suc- 
cess, as stock will put on more flesh, for the same 
amount of feed, in warm weather, than in cold 
weather ; and in a climate where long, cold winters 
prevail, stock should be fed in the summer season, 
as much as possible, and be put into the market in 
early winter, or fall, while those more favorably sit- 
uated, as to warm winters, can feed later to good 
advantage, and market at such season as will pay 
the best. A pig that would gain ten pounds weight 
for the bushel of corn fed in warm weather, would 
probably gain five pounds for the same feed in the 
coldest weather. Many experiments have been 
made, indicating that raw corn fed to swine has 
made ten pounds gain, and on the strength of these 
statements, people are very apt to take for granted, 
that such is the general result of feeding corn to 
swine. 

Cooked corn has made a gain on hogs all the wsty 
from twelve to twenty pounds for the bushel of 
corn fed. The different ages of hogs, the breeds 
of hogs, the state of the weather they were fed in, 
the condition of health of the hogs, at time of feed- 
ing, and the time the feeding is continued, all have 
their effects in the results of feeding. Skillful men 
in feeding different breeds of hogs, have demonstra- 
ted the fact that good breeds of hogs, that have been 



AND STOCK GROWER. 153 

well fed, and kept in good, healthy condition, have 
proved much more profitable, and the stock from 
such animals is worth a great deal more, than the 
stock from animals that have been neglected, run 
down, and become debilitated with disease; but no 
man has ever yet proved that a Berkshire is a better 
feeder than a Poland China, or Chester White; 
neither has it ever been proved, that any one breed 
possesses a very great value over all others. While 
one person has, by a lucky purchase of one or more 
good animals of a certain breed, made a great and 
satisfactory success, and by the experiment, in his 
own mind, has established the fact that his special 
favorite has proved to be the best breed in the 
country; at the same time, another person, with an- 
other breed, has made as full, or greater, success, 
with the same kind of experiments, and so the con- 
troversy continues, and probably will continue, as 
long as man exists, and breeds domestic animals. 

By the different breeders of swine, all the leading 
and established breeds have, in the hands of certain 
individuals, and under certain favorable conditions, 
each by itself, been proved equally as good as any 
other breed, and no standard of excellence or value 
has been attained in any one breed, but what an 
equally high standard of value has been attained by 
some other breed. And, while these are probably 
facts, each breed, by itself, has a special characteris- 
tic value for some special merit, that no other breed 
has manifested ; and each seems to have a special 
value on account of a certain adaptation of the ani- 
mal to a certain condition of life. 



154 THE WESTERN FARMER 

While the Berkshire will probably put on as 
much weight for twelve months, as the Poland 
China, at the same time the Poland China will putj 
on the greatest weight for twenty months feeding ; f 
and while the Berkshire is probably better adapted 
to a more northern climate, and will be more profit- 
able in such a climate, — on the other hand, the 
Poland China would probably be full as profitable 
for a warm climate ; and, while the Chester White 
might be as good a feeding hog as the best, others 
might be found more hardy, and better breeders. I 
have made a good success with different breeds of 
hogs, under favorable conditions, and have also 
made a poor success with the same breeds, under 
circumstances that were unfavorable for success. 
As to the best age to market hogs, twelve to twenty 
months is found to be the most profitable aa:e, ac- 
cording to breed, and circumstances of the breeder. 
Young hogs put on flesh faster, and give a greater 
return for their feed, than older hogs. It is found 
more profitable to feed pigs to their full capacity, 
until they are put into market. While good, thrifty, 
healthy hogs, in warm weather, will put on ten 
pounds gain for each bushel of corn fed raw, it ia 
quite evident that the average gain for hogs through- 
out the west is only about five or six pounds for 
the bushel of corn fed. 

And while three dollars per hundred for live hogs 
only gives fifteen cents to twenty cents per bushel 
for the corn fed, it should be made to give thirty 
cents for each bushel of corn fed. While many 
farmers haul off corn and sell it at fifteen to twenty 



AND STOCK GROWER. 165 

cents per bushel, they should manage to feed it out 
in such a way as to get at least thirty cents per 
bushel at home. Although the price of stock is low, 
there is no probability that it will reach a price so 
low that it will not pay thirty cents per bushel for 
corn that is judiciously fed to the right kind of ani- 
mals. If the western farmer can realize thirty cents 
per bushel for his corn, fed on his own farm, with 
the certainty of a crop that hardly ever fails, it is 
much better, and more sure to reward his labor, 
than the raising of wheat at any price that can be 
expected in the west. While the first one or two 
crops oft' from land will probably pay as well in 
wheat as any other crop, nearly all of our prairie 
lands are found much better adapted to corn, oats, and 
grass ; and after being cropped a few years, wheat 
is found to be a very uncertain crop. 

SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

As a very essential part of the live stock interest 
of the west, we will include, in this chapter, a few 
remarks on sheep. 

This subject of sheep husbandry, in the west, be- 
ing somewhat peculiar in its nature, requires, per- 
haps, a more special investigation than any other 
branch of the live stock department ; and, as in all 
other departments of live stock, we find a great di- 
versity of opinion among different owners of sheep. 
To get at the foundation of this subject, we must 
necessarily look into the leading characteristics of 
each breed of sheep, prominent in the United States, 



156 THE WESTERN FARMER 

and understand tlieir history, and natural adaptation 
to different conditions of life. 

As the most prominent breed in the country, the 
American Merino, having a wider range of adapta- 
tion probably than any other sheep in the world, we 
will notice this breed first. The peculiar soil and 
climate of Spain that originated this breed, as well 
as the natural habit of this breed in its native coun- 
try, must necessarily be investigated and understood, 
as well as the conditions of success that have been 
brought to bear in this country in improving tiieir 
original condition. 

Merino, in the Spanish language, means wander- 
ing; hence, a wandering sheep. These sheep, having 
their home and habitation in the congenial climate 
of Spain, in a comparatively dry and pure atmos- 
phere, and being habituated to a scant but rich qual- 
ity of herbage peculiar to all mountain regions, 
driven in large flocks from place to place in search 
of food, they necessarily took on that form of phys- 
ical frame and habit that forms such a marked con- 
trast with the more domestic animal of the same 
species in the British Isles. The Spanish Merino 
imported into the United States and given a more 
domestic treatment, has been greatly improved in 
different portions of the coantry, so that a sheep 
quite superior to the original has been developed and 
acclimated to different conditions of life. In notic- 
ing, however, the conditions of success in its devel- 
opment and improvement, we find that the peculiar 
stony or gravelly soils of the mountain regions and 
high lands of Vermont, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, 



AND STOCK GROWER. 157 

and a portion of Tennessee, are the localities where 
the greatest success has been made with this breed, 
and on such soils only have they ever remained a 
healthy race, and made a suecessful growth, for any 
great length of time. 

In certain counties in northern Ohio, on a sandy 
soil and rough rolling land, many farmers kept good 
flocks of the Merino and had good success, often 
shearing eight to nine pounds per head of washed 
fleece for the whole flock. 

In other counties on a more level and clay land, 
these sheep were often atflicted with foot-rot and 
other diseases, that made their keeping less profit- 
able to their owners. Lands that are specially 
adapted to the growth of wheat are also well adapted 
to Merino sheep, and the two branches of business 
are necessarily connected with each other. Randall, 
in his work on "Sheep Husbandry," asserts that 
Merino sheep cannot be grown on the western prai- 
rie, and probably Mr. Randall was about half right, 
as disease has usually followed this class of sheep 
when brought into the west, and with few exceptions 
they have failed to make any increase on the prairie. 
The common complaint is the scab, foot-rot, and a 
failure generally to raise the lambs. This fact can- 
not be attributed to the climate, but must be attrib 
uted to the soil. The deep alluvial soil and level 
lands in the west does not give that rich quality of 
feed that is common to sandy or gravelly soils, which 
are common to all mountainous regions. 

The abnormal growth of hoof peculiar to the Me- 
rino on rich alluvial soil, is a characteristic of their 
14 



158 THE WESTERN FARMER 

natural habit of wandering over stony soils that de- 
mands a greater wear, and consequently a greater 
growth of hoof. On farms throughout the west that 
are characterized by a sandy soil and rolling or hilly 
surface, with a necessary amount of timber, the Me- 
rino can be made a success, with the proper care 
and management. 

The value of the Merino in the west arises from 
a superior production that follows the crossing with 
coarse wool bucks, and for this purpose there is 
perhaps no other sheep so valuable. While the 
leicester, Cotswold, and Southdown are sometimes 
subject to disease and sudden death by undergoing 
a change of climate from the older states, or Canada, 
to the west, they soon become acclimated and gen- 
erally become healthy and seem to be much better 
adapted to the alluvial soil of the prairie than the 
Merino. 

The coarse wool varieties here noticed are nat- 
urally adapted to a more severe climate, and enjoy 
our cold winters much better than the Merino. Du- 
ring the past severe winter I have had the ditferent 
varieties of coarse wool sheep mixed in with the 
Merino, in the same flock, and when the coarse wool 
sheep would face the storms and go a half mile to a 
stack for feed, the Merino would stand all day under 
the shed and not come out. Good sheds should be 
constructed for sheep, so as to keep out the drifting 
snow from the north, east, and west, but should be 
open on the south, as a tight shed or barn is not 
healthy for sheep, if kept in large numbers. 

Of the various breeds of sheep, the coarse wool 



AND STOCK GROWER. 159 

varieties imported from the British Isles have a bet- 
ter adaptation to the western prairie, and will event- 
ually take the place of the Merino and all other 
sheep of a less vigorous constitution. All the coarse 
wool varieties have their natural habits and traits of 
character, that have been given them by high domes- 
tication and good feeding, and for keeping in large 
numbers may not succeed as well as the Merino, 
but so far as my experience goes there is less diffi- 
culty to be apprehended from this cause than is 
generally anticipated by breeders. The sheep de- 
manded by the western farmer in the corn regions 
is one that will turn at an early age for mutton, as 
meat producing is essentially the leading business of 
the western farmer. 

While the best mutton sheep is sought by the 
farmer, it should also be an object to get a good 
wool sheep, as both items are an object and about 
equal source of proHt. My experience has tested 
the fact that a cross of coarse wool bucks on Merino 
ewes for general stock purposes proves an entire 
success, and a flock of sheep reared up from this 
cross, by still breeding on coarse wool bucks, will 
prove fully as profitable for both wool and mutton 
as the full blood of any coarse wool variety. In the 
fact of importing any stock from eastern states or 
from foreign countries, however well adapted they 
may be, the sadden change of climate seems to have 
a derogatory influence upon the health as well as 
the breeding qualities of the animal, and for that 
reason, the crossing on stock that is already accli- 
mated to the country, although inferior in character, 



160 THE WESTERN FARMER 

produces a better success in the health of the oft- 
spring than breeding full bloods, not so acclimated. 
A full blood animal of any breed that has been bred 
in the west from sound and healthy stock, is much 
more valuable for the farmer in the same locality and 
conditions of climate, than one imported from a dif- 
ferent country or climate. This rule, I think, will 
apply to all classes of stock, and generally be found 
correct by the western stock breeder. In the cross 
of a Southdown buck on a Merino or native ewe, the 
offspring, instead of being half-blood, is virtually 
three-fourths blood, the great predominance of char- 
acter being in favor of the buck, and arising from 
the superior vigor and constitution of the animal. 
On the same principle, the breeding a Short Horn 
bull on a native cow shows that predominance of 
character in the offspring in favor of tha sire that 
almost equals the full blood, and this principle is 
what constitutes the value of well bred animals. 

Through this system of breeding, by the importa- 
tion of the best types of the coarse wool varieties 
into the west, and breeding pure breeds of these 
several classes, also crossing and breeding grades for 
common stock purposes, is found the road to suc- 
cessful sheep husbandry in the west. The quality of 
wool produced by these several crosses and grades 
has an active demand, and quick sale to manufac- 
turers, as will be noticed in the report included in 
the back part of this volume. On the 28th Decem- 
ber, 1872, a lot of sheep were sold in the Chicago 
market for eight cents per poand, averaging one 
hundred and forty pounds per head. These were 



AND STOCK GROWER. 161 

mutton sheep, or as is usually understood, the coarse 
wool variety. At the same time that this lot of sheep 
sold for eight cents per pound, or $11. 20 per head, 
a good lot of Merino or native sheep would only 
bring about four and a half cents per pound, and at 
the average weight of ninety pounds per head would 
bring |4.05. 

Now I have a lot of lambs bred from Merino ewes 
crossed on Cotswold bucks, that at twelve months 
old weigh one hundred pounds per head on an aver- 
age, and at twenty months old will safely weigh one 
hundred and forty pounds per head, which we will 
estimate worth in the Chicago market $10.00 each 
when twenty months old. . 

This lot of lambs will shear one clip of wool at an 
average of ten pounds per head, that we will esti- 
mate at thirty-five cents (allowing for a decline in 
the market), making $3.50 per head for wool and 
$10.00 for carcass for twenty months growth, with 
only one wintering we have $13.50 per head. 

My full blood Merino lambs, dropped at the same 
time, all kept in the same flock of about five hun- 
dred lambs, with the same feed, will weigh at twen- 
ty months not over ninety pounds per head, which 
we will estimate at $4.05 per head, as heretofore, 
and about six pounds of wool per head, which, at 
say forty cents per pound, or $2.40 per head for 
wool, making $6.45 for a merino lamb of good stock, 
well kept, at twenty months old, as against $13.50 
for a Cotswold grade, at the same age. Another fact 
comes in here, to still widen the difference in profit; 
viz : In raising the grade lambs I find ninety-five 



162 THE WESTERN FARMER ' 

per cent can be saved, while not more than fifty to 
seventy-five per cent of Merino lambs can be saved 
if dropped at the same time or in early spring. In 
a latitude where long winters prevail, it is necessary 
to turn bucks in with ewes about the Ist to the 15th 
of November, so as to have lambs dropped early in 
April, as it is frequently remarked by western sheep 
growers that one early lamb is worth two late ones. 
The Southdown cross is equally as hardy as the 
Cotswold cross, but not quite as valuable for size of 
sheep or weight of fleece. 

In comparing profits of sheep husbandry with the 
raising of swine, say a large breed of swine like the 
Poland China, is raised to twenty months old, at an 
average weight of four hundred and fifty pounds per 
head, which is a liberal estimate in the west, and at 
three and a half cents per pound gross, or $15.75 per 
head. Now on the closest estimate that I can make, 
a hog at twenty months old will consume more than 
double the grain, and require at least twice the labor 
in feeding, as well as be subject to loss by cholera or 
other disease, that adds at least twenty per cent to 
the cost of hogs in the cholera districts of the west. 
Again, the hog is rooting and destroying all pasture 
where turned out to pasture, and sheep do no dam- 
age to either pasture or fences, and require less cost 
in fencing than any other stock on the farm. 

I find it difiicult to give a close estimate in dollars 
and cents, on any one branch of farming, where a 
system of mixed husbandry is carried on, as with me, 
as all the branches necessarily co-operate in reduc- 
ing expenses a little, where carried on together so as 



AND STOCK GROWER. 163 

to employ a certain number of men and teams du- 
ring the year, and keep all employed at all seasons 
of the year. For a statement of profit in sheep hus- 
bandry, I will commence with one given by Eli 
Stillson, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to the National 
Live Stock Journal, of March, A. D, 1873, for one 
thousand sheep and three sheep to the acre, as fol- 
lows: — 

333 acres of land at $50 per acre $16,650 

1,000 sheep at $2.50 per head 2,500 

Value of land and sheep $19,150 

Cr. 

By 4,500 pounds of wool at 50 cents $3,250 

By mcrease of flock 200 at $3 each 400 

Net receipts $3,650 

Dr. 

To interest on capital at 7 per cent $1,340.50 

To cost of labor and board 1,000.00 

To repairs and insurance 200.00 

To feed purchased 50.00 

Wool twine, and salt 25.00 

$3,615.50 
Nothing added here for taxes. Apparent profit, 
$84.60, to ofiset loss by dogs, and other casualties. 

In contrast with his statement I will give one in 
accordance with my own experience, and in the first 
place say, that my Merino sheep shear six and one- 
fourth pounds of washed fleeces per head, instead 
of four and one-fourth pounds to the head, as given 
by Mr. Stillson, and while he sold his clip at fifty 
cents I sold mine at fifty-three cents per pound. 
Instead of putting on three sheep to the acre I would 
prefer to put on only two to the acre of improved 
land, and make the estimate as follows : 



164 THE WESTERN FARMER 

For 1,000 acres of land at $40 per acre, or $40,000 

2,000 sheep at $5 per head 10,000 

Making capital invested ^ $50,000 

Ce. 
By 20,000 pounds wool, 10 pounds per head, unwashed 

at 35 cents $7,000 

By 800 lambs at $5 each 4,000 

Annual proceeds $11,000 

Dr. 

To interest on capital at 7 per cent $3,500 

To cutting and feeding 200 acres feed 1,600 

To taxes on property 200 

To repairs on farm 200 

To salt, incidentals, and shearing 300 

Annual expenses apparent $5,800 

Annual profits apparent $5,200 

The advantage of manure to the farm in mixed 
farming, where grain is raised as well as grass, and 
this item, with $200 more taken off from the item of 
profits, might offset the wear and decay on farm 
tools and machinery, as well as interest on this item 
of investment not included in this statement, and 
bearing $5,000 as the item of profit to ofi'set the time, 
care, and labor of managing the business, which is 
one of constant care and anxiety. 

In devoting this one thousand acres to sheep, I 
would have eight hundred in pasture, a part blue 
grass if possible, but timothy, for both pasture and 
hay, is good for sheep, and a pasture or meadow of 
clover and timothy will be more reliable and pro- 
duce more feed; but clover is poor pasture for sheep 
after the fall frosts, and if a field of blue grass or 



AND STOCK GROWER. 165 

fall rye can be provided to turn into as soon as the 
frosts appear in the fall, sheep will do much better. 
Clover pasture will make sheep scour badly after 
frost comes in the fall. In the two hundred acres to 
be devoted to grain and meadow, I would divide 
equally into meadow, oats, and corn, or about sixty - 
five acres in each. The hay should be cut early, 
and stacked in field, and the oats cut a little green, 
so as not to shell or waste in feeding. A heavy crop 
of oats can be cut and bound up into bundles cheap- 
er than any other way of harvesting, and stack much 
better, and much more convenient in feeding in the 
bundle. Oats I consider the most valuable crop for 
sheep, as well as]any other young stock or breeding 
stock on the farm. There is no substitute for oats 
on a prairie for sheep or young stock or breeding 
animals. The straw that is scattered on the ground 
and left by sheep can be taken up and used for bed- 
ding, as all sheep yards should be well bedded with 
straw during the winter. I always find it better to 
scatter oats on clean ground in feeding, and but little 
loss of grain will result from this plan, as sheep will 
pick up all grain on clean ground. In growing corn 
for sheep, I prefer to plant in drills three and a half 
feet between rows, and stalks eight to ten inches apart 
in the row, as a larger crop can be raised in this way, 
and if cut up and put into large shocks as soon as it 
begins to harden, the fodder is of great value for sheep, 
as they require a great deal of rough fodder. I prefer 
to feed corn, oats, and hay by changing, or feed hay 
so that they can get it from racks at any time, and 
sheep that are to be turned for mutton will do better 



166 THE WESTERN FARMER 

ou shock corn alone. Breeding ewes should have 
oats and hay and very little corn. The new stock 
of lambs, after getting started on winter feed, will 
keep fat on shock corn and hay, but oats will add 
greatly to the growth of wool, and carry lambs 
through the winter with less loss than feeding corn. 
In commencing to feed corn to sheep, great caution 
must be used, as there will be some that will over 
eat, and death is generally the result. After sheep 
get to eating corn for live or six weeks there is no 
danger of over feeding after that. In the estimate 
of two sheep to the acre, I made allowance for ordi- 
nary pasture and common crops of grain, but a farm 
to produce as it should by good tillage, will feed 
two thousand five hundred sheep for each one thou- 
sand acres, but two sheep to the acre is a safe calcu- 
lation. In this estimate of ten pounds of wool per 
head, I do not include Merino sheep, but full blood 
Cotswold and grades, and put the price for unwashed 
wool, which will make the estimate plain and reas- 
onable to any wool grower. My full blood Cotswold 
sheep, which I consider as good as the average of 
that class, I find shear from ten to eighteen pounds 
of unwashed wool, and will scour out in tub wash- 
ing about thirty-two per cent, while merino wool in 
the dirt will usually scour out sixty per cent of dirt 
and grease. A lot of grades Cotswold and Merino, 
such HS I am raising, will average ten pounds per 
head safely in the dirt, and scour out not over forty 
per cent to produce clean wool. I have made my 
estimate quite low, so as to be safe in case of any 
emergency of bad luck or depreciation in prices. 



Il 



AND STOCK GROWER. 167 

I raise heavy crops on a new farm, and feed well, 
as I find no profit in keeping any kind of stock on 
the starving plan. In estimating eight hundred 
lambs, at five dollars each, I make the estimate on 
the basis of turning all surplus of stock, or the an- 
nual increase in the shape of mutton, and sell out 
all weathers, and a sulficient number of ewes to 
make this number. 

As to the feed and labor allowed here in the esti- 
mate, eight dollars per acre, all round, for the corn, 
oats, and hay, will cover all cost of raising, harvest- 
ing, and feeding out, and will feed this number of 
sheep up to a condition of mutton sheep. As not 
more than one-fourth of the flock would, at any 
time, be weathers, there would necessarily be one 
thousand breeding ewes, and an increase of eight 
hundred, on this class of sheep, is quite low, accord- 
ing to my experience. 

While I consider this estimate safe, on the class 
of sheep here referred to, I would not undertake to 
show up much margin of profit with a lot of Merino 
sheep. And, in the statement of Mr. Stillson, I fail 
to see any margin of profit. While my situation 
and fixtures are quite favorable for sheep growing, 
I could, probably, show a little profit on the same 
basis of Mr. Stillson, with this advantage, that I 
probably feed better, and have a better grade of 
Merino sheep. 

My Merino sheep shear six and one-fourth 
pounds per head, washed fleece, and sold, last sea- 
son, for fifty-three cents per pound, which would 
give me one dollar per head income more than re- 



168 THE WESTERN FARMER 

ceived by Mr. Stillson, and wliile his figures show 
no profit, I would, on two thousand sheep, realize, 
two thousand dollars profit, compared with my pres- ; 
ent showing of five thousand dollars profit on the 
same number of Cotswolds, and grades. 

While this is my showing of success, I would not 
pretend that every farm of one thousand acres, in 
the wesfwould, with the same care and labor, pro- 
duce an equally favorable result. In conclusion of 
this subject, I would say that I find no bad results 
from keeping eight hundred to one thousand head 
of mixed breeds together, on summer pasture, but 
in winter, three hundred to five hundred is a large 
flock to keep together, and feed to good advantage. 
J have found, by experience, that sheep will never 
sufiter for water as long as there is snow on the 
ground ; and, by experiments, in watering some 
flocks, by pumping water all winter for them, and 
giving no water at all to other flocks, that I have 
failed entirely to discover any advantage in favor of 
watering. But this was contrary to my expectations. 
For two winters experience in wintering without 
water, I find that sheep have come through the win- 
ter just as well, in every respect, without water, as 
those that were furnished with water, and this im- 
portant fact, I am certain, is an exception in all 
classes of domestic animals, and for the trouble of 
watering stock in cold winter weather, gives the 
sheep an advantage over all other stock, in the care 
of wintering. 

As to the practice of feeding turnips, so common 
in some countries, I find it is not practical with me. 



AND STOCK GROAVER. 169 

The great swarms of insects that make their ap- 
pearance on the approach of warm weather in 
spring, especially on new lands, prevent the grow- 
ing of young plants to such an extent as to forbid 
entire!}^ any success. And the severe winters gen- 
erally, on the western prairie, makes it difficult to 
handle roots of any kind, in feeding stock, as they 
freeze so quick, when exposed to the cold of a real 
winter's day. The cheapness, and abundance of 
other kinds of food, in the west, makes it no object 
to raise roots, to any great extent, except for such 
animals as may be intended for fine stock, or show 
animals. 



15 



170 THE WESTERN FARMER 



CHAPTER XIV. 

FOR the third division of territory to bring to the 
notice of the stock grower, I will include the 
mountain regions of the western continent, lying be- 
tween the Missouri river on the east, and Pacific 
ocean on the west. The geological formation of 
this region of country being almost wholly volcanic, 
is characterized by successive ranges of mountains 
that are almost barren, growing only a scant and 
stunted growth of bunch grass with a stunted growth 
of shrubbery as a common feature, and the valleys 
of alluvial deposits of soil between these several 
mountain ranges, being so limited in extent and 
narrow as a general feature, that no great number 
of population can ever be sustained from the agri- 
cultural resources of the country. The topography 
of this whole region being so nearly the same, that 
no one locality can be said to possess any great nat- 
ural advantages of either soil or climate, the ad- 
vantages of situation to available markets will natu- 
rally be governed by the main thoroughfares of rail- 
roads now built, and those in contemplation, for the 
future developement of portions that are now so se- 
cluded as to prohibit ihe idea of permanent settle- 
ment. The various mining interests throughout this 
whole mountain region, will in the future, as in the 
past, furnish employment for a large number of la- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 171 

borers, as well as the various classes of middle men, 
who furnish the supplies of lood, clothing, and other 
appurtenances of the miner. The very limited ex- 
tent of arable land in all this region will necessarily 
require the cultivation of all that is available for the 
production of vegetables and other necessaries for 
home consumption. Except the wheat and fruit 
lands of California, no other portion of all this region 
of country will produce any surplus of agricultural 
produce, except in the form of live stock. A cer- 
tain portion of California will continue to produce 
wheat and the various kinds of fruit in the greatest 
abundance and of the most superior quality. The 
facilities of inland transportation will, in time, fur- 
nish the mining regions with these leading articles 
of food. The pastoral regions of southern Califor- 
nia, as well as the gulches and ravines and river bot- 
toms of the mountain regions, will support a limited 
number of cattle, horses, and sheep, on the scant but 
exceedingly rich quality of grass that abounds in 
greater or less quantity in different locations. The 
peculiar adaptation of the Merino sheep to this cli- 
mate and soil, gives a source of wealth that is des- 
tined to form the leading article of export. The 
nomadic life of the mountaineer, and the peculiar 
migratory disposition of the Merino sheep, as well 
as the most perfect adaptation of soil and climate, 
makes this country essentially the natural home of 
the Merino sheep. 

A more special attention will now be directed to 
that region of country that seems to attract the at- 
tention of stock growers and capitalists from all por- 



172 THE WESTERN FARMER 

tions of the country; from the natural advantages 
furnished in growing so cheaply and successfully, 
that great fortunes are being made from the natural 
pasturage of the country, — a very large extent of 
country extending along the base of the eastern slope 
of the Rocky Mountains, extending into the foot- 
hills and mountain gulches on the west, and a dis- 
tance of three to five hundred miles out into the 
plains on the east, and included mostly in Colorado 
and Wyoming territories. This re-j^ion of country 
has for its geological formation, a drift deposit of 
mostly fine sand, to a great depth, that so plainly in- 
dicates the fact of the beating of the ocean waves 
for many thousands of years against this former 
coast, and by the gradual receding of the waters, 
continued this vast sand deposit eastward for a dis- 
tance of four to six hundred miles, where the change 
to a more sedimentary deposit that characterizes the 
alluvial sail of that garden of the world, the Mississ- 
ippi valley, is generally found, indicating the locality 
of deep waters of the same ocean or inland sea. 
This extensive sand deposit along the base of the 
Rocky mountains, receiving the wash of mineral 
matter from the mountains in the form of various 
mineral salts impregnated with alkali, gives that pe- 
culiar character and adaptation of the soil that dis- 
tinguishes it for its superior quality of natural pro- 
duce in the form of native grass of the country. The 
peculiar adaptation of this superior quality of grass 
to the growth of domestic animals, together with the 
equable climate and healthy and vitalizing atmos- 
phere, affords natural facilities for growing stock 



AND .STOCK GROWER. 173 

that are not enjoyed by any other portion of the 
American continent. 

In the year 1850, while our CaUtbrnig, Emigrant 
Company stopped a few days on a branch of the 
Laramie river, in the month of June, to tit our stock 
for the long siege ahead, it was generally remarked 
that this feed was fully equal to a corntield in the 
older states for feed for cattle and horses. The su- 
perior mineral character of the soil gives to the 
spontaneous growth of vegetation that quality of 
nutriment that is specially adapted to animal life, 
and that necessity of constantly supplying salt to 
stock, as in the Mississippi valley, is not required 
here. In the breeding of young stock, no country 
in the world, probably, affords such natural advan- 
tages. But when we contemplate the fact that not 
more than one-fourth part of this entire country can 
be considered arable land, or will ever pay for plow- 
ing, and that not more than twelve inches of rain 
fall is received here annually, we are forced to the 
conclusion that no great number, comparatively, of 
population, can be supported here, and only along 
the banks of streams can any permanent settlement 
be made. That inevitable condition of things, in a 
civil point of view, that always pertains to a nomadic 
and migratory life, must necessarily exist here. The 
favorable sites along the streams of pure water that 
flow down from the mountains across the otherwise 
uninhabitable country, give favorable advantages for 
small towns and villages that will furnish the head- 
quarters of the herdsman and shepherd, that will, as 
of old, watch their wandering flocks and herds b} 



174 THE WESTERN FARMER 

night and by. day. While the small portion of tilla- 
ble land will furnish the necessary grains and veget- 
ables as well as butter and cheese for a limited num- 
ber of inhabitents,^the larger portion of the country 
must ever be given up to a migrator} life of herding 
cattle, sheep, and horses; and with this feature of 
the country and understanding of its natural adap- 
tation, probably no other country on the face of the 
earth furnishes such natural advantages for growing 
stock, or promises such complete financial success. 
The business of stock growing in this country is 
necessarily confined to a specialty, and certain rules 
and principles will necessarily have to govern the 
modus operandi of the stock grower. Those special 
conditions to be observed in the management of 
stock growing in this country, as well as the results 
to be expected from it, we will notice somewhat in 
detail. First among the important branches of en- 
terprise here, is the manufacture of cheese and but- 
ter. The pure atmosphere and equable climate 
which is ever free from extremes of heat and cold, 
the pure waters of the mountain streams, and the 
rich quality of the pasturage, all combined, furnish 
all the conditions of perfect success in this branch of 
business. The production of cheese here cannot be 
otherwise than the most perfect success, and while 
now that standard brand, "New York Factory," is 
80 extensively counterfeited throughout the western 
country, this popular brand must eventually give 
way to the superior brand. Rocky Mountain Cheese. 
No other one article of diet furnishes the same 
amount of nutriment in the same space or density of 



AND STOCK GROWER. 175 

form that is furnished by the article of cheese ; and 
at the same time, no article of food is better adapted 
to a mining region or a migratory people. No coun- 
try probably, in the world, furnishes a better natural 
market for cheese, than is furnished throughout 
the whole mountain region of the west, or to the 
frontier settlements east of the Rocky mountains. 
The miner, necessarily confined to such articles of 
food as will bear transportation to the best advantage, 
and requiring a strong and hearty diet, finds in the 
article of cheese the most valuable article of food, 
as well as the one best adapted to the system in the 
fatigue and hardships of a miner's life. In this I 
speak from experience and observation while in the 
capacity of a California mine. 

The article of butter, also, has been supplied to 
the mountain regions of the west from the older 
states, and sold in its inferior rancid condition, to 
the California trade at high prices. The Rocky 
mountain region can supply, at a great profit, this 
demand for butter, and, at the same time, produce a 
very superior article. 

As the most extensive and important branch of 
stock growing in the Colorado region of country, the 
growing of sheep will doubtless take the preference 
in time. The extensive plains, without the advan- 
tages of water, that are a feature of this country, are 
better adapted to growing sheep than any other stock. 
No animal will herd so well, or travel so far, or go 
without water as long, as the sheep. But it would 
be as well to remark, that these facts are intended 
to apply to the Merino sheep, instead of the improved 



176 THE WESTERN FARMER 

mutton breeds of the older states and Canada. This 
dry and mountanious region of countr}^, is the nat- 
ural home of the Merino, and with the proper intel- 
igence brought to bear upon this race of sheep, an 
improvement can here be made, I think, that never 
yet has been attained or never will be attained in 
any other country. As an outlet for the surplus pro- 
duce in this country, the article of wool must even- 
tually take the preference over all other branches of 
business. No other article will bear transportation 
as well, and probably no country in the world will 
so cheaply and successfully produce a good article 
of wool, as this country. But without the Merino 
sheep to meet this demand and supply this appro- 
priate place, I would not dare to make this predic- 
tion. And while the Merino is fast losing favor in 
the whole corn-growing region of the west, and is 
being superseded by the mutton breeds, which are 
found more profitable, the demand for Merino wool 
will necessarily increase; and this vast extent of 
country in the mountain regions of the west, so pe- 
culiarly adapted to the Merino, will supply the de- 
mand for this variety of wool in the United States. 

To cross the Merino on some coarse wool variety, 
such as is bred on the Highlands of Scotland, the 
Cheviot or Southdown, would probably result in suc- 
cess, and a sheep that would be more hardy and bet- 
ter adapted to the more northern and colder locali- 
ties could be so produced. The increasing demand 
for wool in the United States, to keep pace with the 
increase of population, and demand for wool fabrics, 
together with the fact that any low price for wool 



AND STOCK aROWER. 177 

will necessarily drive all sheep from the high-priced 
lands of the older states, gives that guarantee of a 
permanency in western wool growing that renders 
it safe and reliable, and at the same time, free from 
any liability of overproduction or loss by sudden de- 
cline in prices. The business of wool growing on a 
basis where sheep are naturally healthy, in a country 
where no cost of land is required, and little or no 
winter feeding, or where the mere cost of herding 
forms the principal item of cost, cannot prove other- 
wise than profitable, even in any emergency of low 
prices for wool in the future. This basis or cost of 
growing wool, as compared with wool growing on 
lands worth fifty to one hundred dollars per acre, in 
a climate where stock is necessarily fed for six 
months of the year, forms a contrast so very remark- 
able as to hold out inducements to capitalists that 
are seemingly not afifbrded by any other branch of 
industry in the United States. 

As to the permanency or durability of these nat- 
ural pastures under close feeding that is a subject 
that might admit of some doubt; yet the range of 
country being so extensive that it seems to bid defi- 
ance to any idea of overstocking for many years to 
come. While the portions of country lying adjacent 
to streams might, in a few years, be overstocked by 
the dairy, or cattle and horses, the larger portion of 
the country distant from the advantages of water 
for stock, can only be made available in growing 
sheep. The Merino sheep, especially, seems adap- 
ted to that condition of climate and soil where water 
cannot be supplied, and will usually thrive well with 



178 THE WESTERN FARMER 

no more moisture than is supplied in the falling dew 
on the grass. 

The next leading class of stock that Avill be found 
profitable in the Rocky mountain region, and one 
deserving important consideration from the fact of 
its being less liable to great depreciation in value, 
or sudden fluctuation in price, is a good quality of 
cattle; which can be raised probably cheaper here 
than in any other section of the country. The cat- 
tle business of this country, however, must necessa- 
rily be handled with a proper understanding of the 
surrounding conditions of market, as well as the 
class of cattle necessary to produce, to meet the de- 
mands with the most profit. 

There seems to be two leading facts that must 
necessarily govern the mode of raising cattle in the 
Rocky mountain region. The first is the market or 
outlet for the surplus cattle of the country ; and the 
second important object is the quality or kind of 
cattle to meet the demand, and prove the most 
profitable to the grower. 

As to the market, the corn growing region of the 
Mississippi valley will doubtless furnish a ready 
market for all cattle that can be raised to a proper 
age for feeding. 

The constant and growing demand for more good 
feeding cattle is a fact well understood throughout 
the corn growing region of the west. As the Rocky 
mountain region cannot grow cattle and fit them 
for the beef market with any great profit, these cat- 
tle must necessarily pass into the hands of the feed- 
ers in the corn growing regions to receive the finish- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 179 

ing touch for the beef market. The natural 
adaptation of this vast region of country, along the 
base of the Rocky mountains, is satisfactorily proved 
by the vast herds of the buffalo that have subsisted 
here in the past, with other wild animals, that have 
furnished the substantial food for the wild Indians. 
In no other portion of country on the earth's sur- 
face, has history furnished us a record of animal 
life in such numbers, in a normal condition, subsist- 
ing upon the spontaneous growth of vegetation of 
the country. The wild buffalo has never occupied 
any other portion of country on the American con- 
tinent in such numbers, as upon these plains east of 
the Rocky mountains, and west of the Mississippi 
river. This being a fact, proves conclusively the 
special adaptation of this country to the bovine race. 
And by the intelligent management, with good 
breeds of cattle that can be made to take the place 
of this wild race, the buffalo, there would seem to 
be hardly a limit to what might be done in growing 
cattle in this section of country. We must, how- 
ever, observe the fact that the buffalo has much the 
advantage over our domestic breeds of cattle in its 
traveling capacity, that gives it the advantage in 
going a long distance from water in pursuit of food. 
Such cattle as will pay best to raise here, must 
be kept near the streams, and not allowed to travel 
any great distance for food or water. The selection 
or good native cows, or grade Short Horn cows, that 
can be purchased in some of the older states to a 
good advantage, should form the basis of every 
herd ; and by the use of thoroughbred Short Horn 



180 THE WESTERN FARMER 

bulls, grade up a superior class of cattle, that will 
sell at two years old for the corn feeding districts, 
to be fitted for the beef market, at the age of three 
years, or a little less. In this branch of stock grow- 
ing, managed in this way, there can be no other 
result, financially, than complete success. The 
growth of young animals in this country will be 
very rapid, and of superior health and vigor of con- 
stitution, and young cattle raised here will be more 
valuable for feeding purposes than the same class of 
cattle raised in the corn growing region. 

Texas cattle are found to be more healthy in this 
region than in their own native country, and the 
crossing on better stock, and gradually grading up, 
would in time produce an animal of some value; but 
it is a very poor policy in any country to take an 
inferior animal, or inferior race of animals, to im- 
prove upon to produce good stock. While the Tex- 
as stock might be used to some advantage, and pro- 
duce a fair profit for the handling, a good native 
or grade Short Horn from the north would give at 
least one hundred per cent more profit; with another 
advantage, that consists in the fact that inferior stock 
is always slow sale, while good stock is always in 
demand at paying prices, even under a depressed 
condition of the market. 

As a third class of stock to be noticed in connec- 
tion with Colorado stock growing, the horse will 
demand our consideration. While each class of 
domestic animals has a special adaptation in the 
economy of civilized nations, each of these separate 
classes have also their own peculiar habits and char- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 181 

acteri sties, that demand of the stock grower, that 
requisite knowledge for the health and complete de- 
velopment of those characteristics so desirable to ob- 
tain Jind perpetuate in the race. The leading object in 
growing cattle, is the most meat of the best quality 
for the amount of food consumed; on the other 
hand, the objects in breeding horses are the greatest 
nerve power, vitality, speed, endurance, muscular 
power, and long life. While the development of the 
meat capacity of an animal demands certain condi- 
tions of feed and management, and these conditions 
are in bountiful supply throughout the corn grow- 
ing region of the west, at the same time the desira- 
ble objects sought in growing horses are dependent 
upon entirely different conditions of life. While 
corn is the principal basis of beef and pork raising 
on the western prairie, it has no special value in the 
growing of good horses; but on the contrary we 
find that oats, as a grain, have a special adaptation 
to the healthy and vigorous development of the 
horse; also that the drift formation of soil, or land 
specially adapted to the Merino sheep, is also the 
favorite of the horse. Where the Merino sheep 
will make a perfect success, there also the horse will 
be found equally successful in acquiring those valu- 
able traits that give him a superiority over all other 
domestic animals. While the foot hills of the Rocky 
mountains, and adjacent plains on the east, are well 
adapted to the healthy growth of sheep and cattle, 
they are more especially adapted to the more perfect 
development of the horse; and in the surrounding 
conditions of market that are likely to exist for 
16 



182 THE WESTERN FARMER 

many years to come, no country m the world affords 
superior advantages of a reliable market. While 
the corn growing regions of the west demand a 
number of horses, and this demand is constantly 
increasing, it is quite evident that the horses grown 
in this section will always be inferior in constitution 
and vigor to those grown in some other portions of 
the country. The growing of horses in the Rocky 
mountain regions, from good stock and proper man- 
agement, will soon result in establishing a reliable 
market, at prices that will eventually take the pref- 
erence over most other portions of the country. 

The whole mountain region of the west is compar- 
atively free from all malaria, or miasmatic condition 
of climate, pot^sessing a dry, pure, and bracing atmos- 
phere, that tends to give a higher development of 
nervous power, thought, and intelligence to man, as 
well as to the lower animals. The inspiring iniiu- 
euce of these natural conditions of soil and climate 
tend to give to man a higher genius, a greater de- 
velopment of mind, and these influences are also 
extended to the equine race, which more nearly ap- 
proaches mankind in intelligence and companion- 
ship than any other of the domestic animals. 

'I'he much abused Mustang, of northern Mexico, 
is an illustration of the climatic causes of the coun- 
try, and the half-starved and stunted growth that is 
induced by hard usage and want of care and feed. 
These Mustang horses, Mexican mules, and Indian 
ponies occupy the same relative position to this 
country that the camel does to the deserts of Africa. 
Becoming adapted to the surrounding natural con- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 183 

ditions of climate and scant feed, often without water, 
on long voyages over the mountains, they seem to 
be capable of enduring most any amount of hard- 
ship and deprivation, while, at the same time, the 
corn fed horses from the corn districts of the west 
are of comparatively little value, when submitted 
to the hardships and exposure without feed and water 
that these animals undergo, and when taken to that 
country, generally fall away in flesh, and soon die, 
with the same treatment given the Mustang. 

Gen. Fremont, in his cavalry expedition through 
Lower California and Northern Mexico, during the 
war with Mexico, in 1847, engaged these Mustang 
horses, which were rode from eighty to ninety 
miles per day on an average, as stated by himself, 
and far surpassing in endurance anything ever 
known of any other class of horses under the same 
condition of treatment. 

The clean, rich, nutritious, but scant bunch grass 
of the mountain regions, together with the superior 
condition of climate, give to the horse great life and 
wind power, with superior vitality and longevity of 
life. These natural advantages brought to bear by 
the intelligence of man, will eventually develop a 
race of horses entirely superior to any yet known 
on the American continent. 



184 THE WESTERN FARMER 



CHAPTER XV. 

DOES COLOR INDICATE QUALITY? 

WHILE there seems to be a general preju- 
dice against white in the Short Horn fam- 
ily, and this prejudice extends to white in other do- 
mestic animals, let us examine into the facts, and if 
there is merit or value in the quality of any animal 
that may be indicated by color, we should as far as 
possible avail ourselves of these advantages in breed- 
ing stock. A person goes into the market to pur- 
chase an apple for eating purposes, and without 
stopping to reflect or give any reason why, his intu- 
itive perception directs him at once to the high 
colored or deep red apple. This he finds to be gen- 
erally of a rich and high flavor, and by experiment- 
ing upon the diflferent "colors as indicating quality, 
it is found a fixed fact in nature that the principle 
holds good throughout the whole vegetable kingdom, 
^llow indicates an organic quality superior to white, 
and a deep red superior to yellow, and all the vary- 
ing shades of color are found to denote quality. An 
apple may be selected for eating that is of a very 
inferior quality, by reason of its agreeableness to the 
palate, while an apple of the highest quality may 
fail to suit the appetite. Another principle connect 



AND STOCK GROWER. 185 

ed with vegetable life, we find, also, is weight, or 
specific gravity. This principle can be illustrated in 
this way: let a person measure up a load of peach- 
blow potatoes and weigh them, and then measure 
up the same bulk of any large white variety, and he 
will easily detect the difference, and consequently 
learn the advantage of selling certain kinds of veg- 
etables by weight instead of measure. Let us again 
follow this principle into the animal kingdom, and 
by way of illustration, take two boys of the same 
age, that l)oth go into the water to learn to swim; 
one, after two or three trials, swims off' readily, with 
no apparent effort, fioating on the water like a board, 
and never in danger of being drowned, as his spe- 
cific gravity is such that no effort is required to sus- 
tain himself on the water. On the contrary, the 
other boy, even of a more venturesome disposition, 
plunges in and makes many efforts, but learns that 
it is impossible for him to learn to swim, for at 
every effort to sustain himself on the water he sinks 
to the bottom like a stone, and with many years ex- 
perimenting, ascertains the fact that it is not possi- 
ble for him to swim. These, instead of being theo- 
ries, are facts that I have personally demonstrated. 
Again, we observe a man of only medium stature, 
that is capable of enduring almost any amount of 
physical or intellectual labor, while another of much 
greater stature is comparatively a bass-wood man, 
if I may be allowed the expression by way of con- 
trast. This difference of physical organization we 
find applies to the whole animal kingdom, as well as 
the vegetable. 



186 THE WESTERN FARMER 

In choosing a horse we notice a vast difference in 
different animals, and any superior ^quality in the 
animal can be detected by the observing and experi- 
enced eye; high colors and bright colors in nearly 
every instance indicating a corresponding superior 
quality as to intelligence, physical strength, and dur- 
ability. Among sheep we notice the Southdown 
with black face and legs and smoothly rounded phys- 
ical form, always ready and active in picking its own 
way, and getting a living under neglect and adversi- 
ty. Among swine we notice the smooth and black 
skin Berkshire, with fine physical form and intelli- 
gent countenance, always on the alert, ready for any- 
thing that will afford sustenance, while the coarser 
breeds cannot live and thrive under the same cir- 
cumstances. Among the various families of the 
domestic animals, we notice certain highly organized 
types denoting superior organic structure, showing 
greater resistance to the various diseases that are 
common to the class, and at the same time proving 
themselves much more profitable for breeding pur- 
poses, by reason of reproducing with uniformity and 
greater certainty, as well as superior quality of their 
offspring. Among the bovine class of domestic ani- 
mals, we notice a greater differance and wider range 
of types than in any other class. From the fact of 
their being the most common domestic animal given 
to the human family, their great diversity necessarily 
arising from the various conditions of climate and 
food, as well as habits and modes of different people 
in managing their domestic animals. 

While the British Isles, with its rainfiill of five to 



AND STOCK GROWER. 187 

six feet in a year, in a high latitude of even temper- 
ature, will produce the robust Englishman, as a 
contrast, the state of Iowa, with less than half the 
rainfall, in a changeable climate, but dry and brac- 
ing atmosphere, will only produce the improved 
type of the nervous, ambitious, and ingenious Yan- 
kee. All the various characteristics of different 
nationalities would in a few generations become 
assimilated and reduced to one characteristic type 
peculiar to the natural condition of their newly 
adopted country. The peculiar soil and climate of 
the British 'Isles, that gives the superior physical 
development to all their domestic animals, naturally 
produces the famous Short Horn, and the various 
types of large frame, long wool sheep, while the 
country of Spain, with a warmer, dryer climate and 
scant vegetation, produces the characteristic Merino. 
While the original color, of the Short Horn family 
seems to have been mostly white — and such color 
does not seem to be an objection in England at the 
present time — on the contrary, the climate of Iowa 
and the western prairie interposes an objection at 
once. The characteristic coarseness and tenderness 
in organic structure of animals of a white or light 
color might not be so much of an objection in the 
southern states in a warmer latitude, with a climate 
that naturally induces that condition of animal life. 
The dry and vitalizing atmosphere of our state 
naturally tends to a higher order of animal life, and 
different domestic animals of a larger frame will 
gradually undergo a change in our climate, and with 



1^8 THE WESTERN FARMER 

this change a corresponding change in color will 
naturally follow. 

While white was the original color of the Short 
Horn, red is destined to he the color, especially in 
the western states. While the different shades of 
red indicate a difference in quality, the dark or ma- 
hogany red will take the preference and become the 
ideal of perfection. 

The law that like begets like, only holds good 
under certain favorable conditions. Less bone and 
more flesh, with a more compact and solid condition 
of the physical structure, is the natural tendency of 
our western plan of feeding in our western climate, 
and with this change in organic structure, a corres- 
ponding change in color will naturally follow. 

The farmer that acts upon these principles in choos- 
ing stock for breeding purposes in Iowa, will more 
surely get on the road that^ promises success. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 189 



CHAPTER XVI. 

FEEDING FOR FAIRS — PEDIGREES OF SHORT-HORNS. 

WHILE it cannot be denied that great ad- 
vantages and benefits accrue to the agricul- 
tural interests of the country from an extended 
system of agricultural societies and annual fairs, 
there are many evil tendencies connected with them 
which escape the notice of the casual observer. 

The live stock department of our shows is often 
of such great magnitude, that it would seem as if 
the labors cf the societies to develop the interest 
which is of the highest importance to the farmer, 
had been crowned with complete success, and per- 
mitted no qualification. But nothing short of a 
good show animal will secure credit to the exhibi- 
tion or the exhibitor, and our shows encourage all 
coming within the sphere of their influence to study 
and labor for the production of such animals. And 
yet the conditions which must be established on the 
farm as a prerequisite to the production of show ani- 
mals, are a serious detriment to the progress of suc- 
cessful breeding, and inflict a damage upon the 
country of a character sufficiently serious to coun- 
teract in a large degree the benefits which accrue 
from our exhibitions. These conditions induce an 
impotent and barren condition of the animals them- 



190 THE WESTERN PARMER 

selves, and through their oftspriug sow far and wide 
the seeds of degeneracy, and a natural and heredit- 
ary tendency to weak constitutions. 

Some of our theoretical editors sit behind their 
city counters, giving advice to farmers on the scien- 
tific principles of farming and stock growing, advo- 
cating the "forcing system," and declaring that the 
arguments advanced against it are " vague and un- 
founded," and that high feeding is the secret of 
success in the improvement of stock. Acting upon 
this plan, one of his readers visits the herd of some 
" famous " Short Horn breeder who feeds on the 
forcing system, and shows with great success, and 
purchases one or more show cows in their prime of 
life, which are recommended as being in calf by 
certain sires which are famous in the show-ring. 
With his purchase the farmer returns home, his 
mind filled with visions of fame in the future, and 
in due time wakes up to the fact that some of his 
high priced pets are hopelessly barren, and others 
very indifterent breeders, producing calves that fall 
far short of his anticipations. From one or two 
such lessons as these, the unsophisticated breeder 
begins to draw conclusions which are not quite so 
" vague " as they might be. Again : a farmer visits 
a herd of noted show animals, and discovers that cer- 
tain famous cows have died of disease while yet in 
their prime ; that others have lost their calves, pre- 
maturely dropped; that young stock, the produce of 
these famous animals, have staring coats of hair, 
and are afllicted with scours and colic, which defy 
the control of the breeder, and many of them so 



AND STOCK GROWER. 191 

phj^sically debilitated as to render them forever 
comparatively worthless for breeding purposes. 
When he realizes these facts, and ascertains that the 
number of the representatives of famous females 
sought for by all the world can be counted upon his 
fingers, and that many popular tribes have absolute- 
ly passed away and "left no sign," his ideas of the 
" forcing system " are not quite so " vague " and in- 
definite as some people affect to believe. 

As a close observer of the Short Horn interest in 
America for the past twenty-five years, and a breed- 
er, not only of Short Horns, but of various descrip- 
tions of stock, I am very free to admit there is no 
other type of the bovine race that can compare with 
the Short Horn for beef purposes; and that where 
bred for milk they are without doubt as profitable 
for the dairy as any other breed of cattle. But I 
believe the treatment of this stock which the influ- 
ence of our fairs tends in a large degree to encour- 
age, is pernicious, and tends to restrict the usefulness 
of this matchless breed of cattle, and limit the 
benefits which it is capable of bestowing upon the 
country. 

Liberal feeding is necessary to maintain any class 
of stock in its highest excellence ; but a Judicious 
system of feeding is more necessary and important. 
Stock, in order to make a vigorous and healthy 
growth, must have the advantage of good pasture, 
furnishing a variety of grasses, that its quality may 
be constantly maintained, and an abundance of 
wholesome water. The system of stall-feeding 
breeding animals and young growing stock for seven 



192 THE WESTERN FARMER 

to nine months in the year, which is the essential 
condition for the production of superior show ani- 
mals, is not the natural way in which to maintain 
stock, and is detrimental to its health, vigor and 
fertility. And while breeding stock cannot be over- 
fed on pasture in the summer, or in winter on hay 
with a proper proportion of oats, shorts, oil-meal, 
or corn, the practice of feeding corn in whatever 
quantities animals can be induced to take, which 
prevails so generally in the west, is highly injurious 
to all breeding stock, and extremely unfavorable to 
a healthy development of young growing animals, 
as every honest breeder of experience will admit. 

As to the matter of pedigrees in connection with 
Short Horns, which was agitated so much at the re- 
cent National Convention of Breeders, . there seems 
to be a variety of opinions ; and these differences 
will naturally be governed by the respective inter- 
ests of different breeders. A pedigree running in 
an unbroken chain to the English Herd Book, 
especially to the early volumes, adds largely to the 
value of the animal, other things being equal. This 
no one will deny. But a monopoly, founded upon 
the basis of a long pedigree, and regarding no other 
considerations, would, I think, be highly prejudicial 
to the stock interests of the country, encouraging 
us to place a higher estimate upon the shadow than 
upon the substance. The present American Herd 
Book system is, under the circumstances, perhaps 
as good as we can harmonize upon. The editor of 
any Herd Book is liable to be imposed upon by false 
pedigrees. And it must be an admitted fact, that 



AND STOCK GROWER. 193 

the value or merit of an animal does not depend 
wholly upon a long pedigree, but on the contrary, 
that it must have an inherent Viilue, independent of 
pedigree, in order to be of any value for breeding 
purposes. It is a fact, which all experienced breed- 
ers will admit, that very inferior animals, possessing 
little or no value for breeding purposes, are fre- 
quently the produce of the most famous and fash- 
ionably-bred sires and dams ; while, on the other 
hand, some of the most promising animals, those 
that prove true and reliable breeders, are the pro- 
duce of animals with short pedigrees ending in high 
grade cows. While a good pedigree, if the animal 
corresponds, possesses much merit, it is only under- 
stood by experienced breeders; and I am inclined 
to think, that the more experience a person acquires 
in breeding, the less faith he will have in long pedi- 
grees, and the more faith in the other established 
laws of reproduction, which are the essentials of 
success in stock breeding. 

As none but breeders of experience are booked 
in pedigrees, the committees appointed as judges 
are, in nine cases out of ten, wholly unacquainted 
wilh them; and as a printed pedigree handed to 
them is about as intelligible as so much Latin, they 
ignore the whole system of pedigrees, and are gov- 
erned in their distribution of awards entirely by the 
eye, or, to speak more accurately, by visible quali- 
ties. And, as nearly all of our committees are 
selected, as they should be, from among general 
farmers, trained through the influence of profit in 
common stock raising — the degree of profit with 
17 



194 THE WESTERN FARMER 

them being always measured by size and fatness — 
this practice of awarding premiums on visible quali- 
ties is certain to prevail throughout the greater por- 
tion of the country, in opposition to any standard of 
fashio)iable breeding, improved quality, or fineness 
in organic structure. The conservative mind of the 
mass of the farmers of the country is yet to be edu- 
cated to the advantages of improved stock, and this 
education will require time, and cannot be forced 
beyond the gradually improving condition of the 
country. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 195 



CHAPTER XVII. 



ESSAY ON STOCK FARM. 



HAVING receptly located a stock farm of twelve 
hundred acres in Jasper county, Iowa, 1 will 
give my experience in connection with it, also involv- 
ing ideas gained from stock raising the last twenty- 
five years in Iowa and northern Ohio. I have fenced 
into ten fields, with five hoard fences and white oak 
posts. I find that in mixed farming, cattle, horses, 
sheep, and hogs running on the farm, nothing less than 
five boards, each six inches wide, will make a reliable 
fence, live fences excepted. Whenever a crop of 
grain is taken from a field it is generally quite nec- 
essary that hogs and cattle or sheep should follow 
to consume what would otherwise go to waste. It 
often happens that a crop, especially in Iowa, is so 
blown down or destroyed by storms that harvesting 
is almost impossible, or attended with so much ex- 
pense that no saving can be made by harvesting ; 
and if so fenced that hogs, cattle, or sheep can be 
turned in, very little loss will be suflfered by the 
farmer. And it often happens in Iowa, that a crop 
fed off" by stock is disposed of to a better advantage 
than to be harvested and put into market. Hence 
I maintain that stock farming in Iowa implies mixed 



196 THE WiiiSTERN FARMER 

farming ; and good, reliable fences are quite requi- 
site for any success. 

The system of rotation in crops, as essential in 
Iowa, on her rich, alluvial soil, as in the older states 
with their worn out land (where it is necessary), 
requires fencing into convenient sized fields so that 
any piece of ground can be seeded down as soon as 
it becomes foul with w^eeds, which is the natural 
tendency with our black alluvial soil. 

The next important consideration in a stock farm 
is plenty of living water in all the fields where stock 
is expected to be kept. No farmer should under- 
take to grow any kind of stock on a farm, beyond a 
work team, without providing water so that stock 
can have access to it of their own will. It is quite 
expensive to furnish water to stock from wells. 
Where ponds can be constructed so as to hold water 
it is more convenient for stock and less expensive; 
but pond water, during the summer, becomes v<!ry 
unwholesome, and unfit for stock to drink in a dry 
season. 

I find that steers herded on the prairie, and fur- 
nished only pond water during the summer, do not 
feed well during the fall and winter. I think that 
steers running where they have good creek water 
during the summer, are worth at least one cent more 
per pound to feed in the fall^ than those that have 
been shut up and confined to pond water. With 
the consideration that stock raising in Iowa must 
necessarily form the leading item, and is quite essen- 
tial to the success of every farmer, a farm with run- 
ning water so as to accommodate every field is worth 



AND STOCK GROWER. 197 

one hundred per cent more than one without run- 
ning water. 

The next important thing in connection with stock 
farming is timber. A grove of timber, in connec- 
tion with running water, where cattle can resort in 
the heat of the day, is of great value and duly ap- 
preciated by all stock. Also in the winter season it 
moderates the cold day, and gives great protection 
to both man and beast. The great advantages of 
timber do not stop here, but are manifest in many 
ways in successful farming in all states. 

As a wind-break, timber gives protection to the 
growing crops in summer ; also gives oft' moisture 
to the atmosphere so as to prevent the sad effects of 
drouth in the vicinity. In a dry season better crops 
are grown in the vicinity of timber than on the open 
prairie distant from timber. Timber seems to ab- 
sorb the miasmatic poison from the atmosphere and 
renders the atmosphere more healthy in the imme- 
diate vicinity. Fruit growing is much more suc- 
cessful in close proximity to timber than on the open 
prairie. I find that a garden started under the pro- 
tection of timber is ten days to two weeks earlier 
than on the open prairie. The soil in the immediate 
vicinity of timber is more productive. The rain 
clouds in a dry season are attracted by streams of 
water and belts of timber. 

The various kinds o*^ domestic animals raised in 
the country we find well adapted to our climate and 
soil. In noting in detail some of the many requi- 
sites for the healthy and profitable growth of our 
leading domestic animals, I will first note the horse, 



198 THE WESTERN FARMER 

which from the fact of his special adaptation, being 
the great motive power for transforming the wilder- 
ness, and fitting it for the abode of civilization, the 
common beast of burden of the country, he demands 
more special care and regard for his health and 
longevity than any other of the domestic animals. 
The state of Iowa, by reason of a superior invigor- 
ating atmosphere, tends to give great vitality to the 
horse as well as man. Yet in no part of the country 
probably, is the horse so soon broken down and phys- 
ically incapaciated for labor, as in Iowa. The com- 
mon practice of feeding corn to horses, without re- 
gard to quantity, is sure to induce disease and 
debility that in a few years will unfit him for labor. 
At the time our horses would naturally be in their 
prime and ready for hard service, they are broken 
down and their usefulness destroyed. This, does not, 
as is generally supposed, result from hard labor, but 
from bad feeding. Corn should not be fed to horses 
at any season of the year except in the coldest 
weather, and then only in small quantities mixed 
with other feed. A well-bred horse will usually 
keep in good health and do active service until he 
is twenty to twenty-five years old, if properly fed 
and not overworked. Clean timoth}^ hay and oats 
as a feed will enable a horse to do more work and 
double his years of usefulness, as compared to the 
common practice of feeding corn and little or no 
hay. All work horses, as well as colts, should be 
allowed to run in pasture when not at work. Horses 
will keep in better health and be able to do more 



AND STOCK GROWER. 199 

hard service if they can be allowed to run at large 
on good pasture a part of the year. 

A few words on neat cattle will suffice. The 
leading object of raising cattle in Iowa is their flesh. 
Beef and pork, the leading exports of the state in 
the past, will doubtless continue so in the future, 
from the natural conditions that control the destiny 
of our state. The principles in connection with this 
subject are the greatest gain for the least amount of 
food consumed, and in the shortest time. The in- 
vestigation of the subject involves not only the plan 
of feeding, but a more important consideration, the 
capacity to take on flesh, or in other words, the dif- 
ferent breeds. 

Fifty years experience in this country has given 
the " Short Horn " the preference over all other 
breeds of cattle for beef purposes. So apparent is 
the difference that the most casual observer will at 
once detect the cross, even where but one-fourth or 
one-eighth blood is introduced. 

In introducing the " Short Horn " among our 
herds, I notice a prevailing error in the minds of 
most farmers, who make size the leading object in- 
stead of quality. Among the " Short Horn " family 
there is as much difference in the tendency of dif- 
ferent animals to take on flesh as among our native 
cattle. Great size usually indicates coarseness in 
structure, and the want of capacity to take on flesh 
rapidly. 

Under the present condition of things no farmer 
in Iowa can afford to breed the common native cat- 
tle of the country; and the longer he persists in it 



200 THE WESTERN FARMER 

the worse will his condition be financially. Plenty 
of feed at all times, plenty of good living water, 
with sail accessible at all times, and good shelter in 
winter, are the leading requisites of raising cattle. 
In feeding hogs the same general principles apply 
as in feeding cattle. 

Plenty of good clover pasture and water during 
summer, until the grain fields are cleared, then the 
hogs should have the benefit of what is left. After 
cleaning the grain fields, hogs should be turned into 
a corn field, where they cannot have too large field 
to run over at one time. This, by some, would be 
comsidered wasteful feeding. I consider it quite 
economical, at the present price of labor, and price 
of corn. For winter feeding, hogs do much better 
to be with cattle where they can b^ sheltered and 
have dry nests, and water convenient to get at. 
Hogs, to thrive well, and be healthy, where full fed 
on corn, should have plenty of salt, sulphur, and 
wood ashes, where they can run to it and help 
themselves. Stone coal will furnish the sulphur, 
and i= quite valuable for hogs. As to breeds, Berk- 
shire, Poland China, and Chester Whites, all have 
their admirers. Two years experience with the dif- 
ferent breeds, being fed together and treated all 
ahke, has convinced me that I do not want anything 
to do with white hogs of any breeds. 

The black hog will, I think, eventually take the 
preference in Iowa. I breed the Poland China as a 
distinct breed, also the Berkshire. The best feed- 
ing hogs are produced by crossing Poland China 
sows with Berkshire boars. I do not ]>retendto say 



AND STOCK GROWER 201 

what would be the result of breeding such a cross 
breed. By intelligent breeding in this way, a better 
hog for Iowa could be produced than we have now 
got for general stock purposes. As to feeding 
cooked food to hogs, at the present price of produce, 
and the cost of labor, I am satisfied that it will not 
pay except for such hogs as are necessarilj^ kept up 
in pens. The farmer in Iowa must necessarily adopt 
a cheaper mode of raising and feeding hogs, and less 
corn should be fed, and good clover pasture furnish- 
ed for feed in summer. In this mode of feeding, 
hogs \vill be more healthy and make a better growth. 
As to the kind of stock that will best pay, my 
opinion is, that no farmer can afford to change from 
one kind of stock to another, with the idea of meet- 
ing a higher market; but all the diflterent kinds of 
stock that the circumstances of the farmer will per- 
mit, should be bred with the idea of a permanent 
business without regard to price. Foretelling the 
price of any one article of produce in the future is 
what no one can pretend to do, and the constant 
fluctu:;tion in prices of all the diiferent kinds of pro- 
duce should be a warning to the farmer to be care- 
ful about investing in any one thing too heavily, but 
rather in as great variety as his circumstances will 
permit; and continue in some established policy or 
plan of carrying on the diflerent branches of farm- 
ing. Instead of letting stock deteriorate, because 
the price is low, the farmer should make it a fijfed 
principle to improve his stock of all kinds by breed- 
ing only the best and selling the poorest. On this 
plan I think success will be sure to reward his efforts. 



202 THE WESTERN FARMER 

No farmer can afford to raise stock of any kind, 
without proper protection in winter from stormy 
weather. 

On the subject of applying manure, I am satisfied 
the most can be realized from it as a top dressing on 
grass land, and all manure that can be saved on the 
farm should be devoted to this purpose, and where 
convenient to do so, should be applied in the winter 
season. 

As to the relative value of different kinds of food 
for stock, corn, the common staple of the country, 
will take the lead for fattening purposes. Corn at 
twenty cents per bushel is as cheap as good timothy 
hay at four dollars per ton. One acre of tame grass 
if properly seeded, I consider of more value than 
three acres of wild or prairie grass, for either mead- 
ow or pasture. Clover is very valuable for pasture, 
for most kinds of stock; but I would not sow clover 
for hay or use it for hay, unless mixed with timo- 
thy. Clover and timothy mixed is best for pasture. 
For seeding down for either meadow or pasture, my 
experience tells me not to sow timothy at any other 
time than the latter part of August or the first of 
September, and to sow on freshly plowed ground if 
possible, and roll down with a heavy roller. With 
the farmer, the roller is just as important as the plow, 
and it should follow the plow in every crop put into 
the ground. Clover should be sowed in the month 
of February, or on fresh plowing in April, and har- 
rowed in lightly. 



\ 



AND STOCK GROWER. 203 



CHAPTER XVIII 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



WITH the present price of wool and other 
farm products in Iowa, sheep husbandry, 
if successfully engaged in, I am satisfied will pay a 
better profit than any other class of farm stock. 
With three years' experience in Iowa, on a farm of 
rolling prairie, well watered with running streams, 
and timber sufiicient for protection against the cold 
winds of winter and the scorching sun of summer, 
I have experimented somewhat in raising hogs of 
different breeds, as well as cattle and horses, and 
also in feeding steers. I have, at the same time, 
kept from one thousand to fifteen hundred sheep, 
consisting of full-blood American Merino, Cotswold, 
and Southdown varieties; also a few large-frame, 
coarse-wool, native sheep; engaging in the business 
of sheep-raising in Iowa after the failure of so many 
different farmers by reason of disease among sheep, 
and the constant annoyance of dogs and wolves, which 
threatened to destroy what few sheep had escaped 
disease, seemed to forebode anything but success; es- 
pecially in a part of the state so infested with dogs 
and wolves, that sheep-raising had been abandoned 
by nearly all the farmers previously engaged in the 



204 THE WESTERN FARMER 

enterprise. With all these obstacles, which seemed 
to threaten failure, I have met with success beyond 
my most sanguine expectations. By yarding my 
sheep at night inside high picket fences, for six or 
eight months, to secure them against the attacks of 
wolves and dogs, that came in great numbers, and 
made the nights hideous with their discordant music, 
I soon succeeded in clearing the surrounding country 
of all wolves and prowling dogs, so that my sheep 
now lie down in safety on any part of the farm, and 
rest in peace and quiet. By the use of strychnine, 
I find it an easy matter to capture all the dogs and 
wolves that come on my premises, and with compar- 
atively little cost and trouble. This mode of deal- 
ing with the common enemy of the sheep, I find is 
quite practicable, and need not be attended with any 
danger to stock on the farm. 

While farmers in all the states are clamoring for 
protection to sheep through the different legislatures, 
that source of protection has proved a failure; and 
especially is this the case in Iowa, where the dog 
owners are in the majority. 

In making a wholesale slaughter of dogs, as I 
have done, I do not find it necessary to make any 
clandestine war on the enemy, or go outside of my 
own fences ; on the contrary, I warn all my neigh- 
bors of the fact — that all dogs are in danger that 
come into my fields. I find that the best trained 
dogs as well as the prowling curs are occasionally 
night wanderers, and soon become victims of the 
fatal poison; but this I conceive to be the only prac- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 205 

ticable mode of providing any security to the wool- 
growers of Iowa. 

The climate of Iowa I consider quite favorable to 
sheep of any breed. Our rolling prairie, pure run- 
ning water, and dry and bracing atmosphere, com- 
paratively free from miasmatic influences, are all 
conducive to the health of sheep. 

Shade of some kind, as a protection from the 
scorching sun of summer, is more essential to sheep 
than to any other stock. 

I think it quite difficult to succeed in sheep-rais- 
ing in Iowa, without the cultivated grasses. Sheep 
will not do as well on prairie hay or prairie pasture 
as on the cultivated grasses. The change of climate 
in the case of sheep from the eastern states disagrees 
with them at first; but after becoming acclimated, I 
think they require less care here than in any state 
east of us. With no other care than providing good 
pasture and water, with sheds for winter protection, 
with plenty of salt having a little sulphur mixed in 
it, I find sheep with me are more healthy, and thrive 
better than in Northern Ohio, where wool-growing 
affords the most reliable income to the farmer. 

With the present prices of ail kinds of stock and 
farm produce, I am satisfied that I can make a bet- 
ter income from sheep, with wool at thirty cents per 
pound, than on any other class of stock. Not every 
farmer in Iowa is so situated as to be able to handle 
sheep to advantage; yet every farmer, with proper 
fences and cultivated grass, can, to good advantage, 
keep at least one sheep to every two acres on his 
larm; and one sheep to each acre on a stock and 
18 



206 THE WESTERN FARMER 

grain farm is about the number that can be kept to 
advantage. 

The noxious weeds that infest the alluvial soil of 
the prairies, and overrun the country, by scattering 
their seeds broadcast, cannot be more effectually 
subdued than by keeping sheep. The coarse herb- 
age that is left by all other stock on the farm, to be- 
come a nuisance, is usually devoured by sheep ; and 
the cost of their keeping is thereby considerably re- 
duced. 

The great advantage of keeping sheep for the pur- 
pose of manuring and renovating worn-out farms, is 
well understood by the farmers of the older states, 
and is resorted to as a necessity as well as a source 
of prolit. This great advantage, I think, will be 
duly appreciated by the Iowa farmer, who is con- 
stantly depleting his farm by grain raising. ^ 

I lind it much more pleasant as well as more pro- 
fitable to raise sheep than hogs. While hogs are 
constantly rooting and destroying pasture, and mak- 
ing their raids over the farm, breaking through 
fences, and destroying crops, sheep cause no such 
trouble. For gleaning the grain fields after harvest 
and through the winter, a greater saving can be 
effected with sheep than with hogs. Cholera, that 
seems to prevail^among swine throughout the west, 
in defiance of the best medical skill, thus destroying 
annually a large portion of the crop, renders this 
class of stock less safe, and therefore less profitable 
than sheep. 

The use of mutton for meat, in place of the hog 
diet so common in the west, would, I think, have a 



AND STOCK GROWER, 207 

tendency to insure better health among the people, 
and to impart greater energy and activity to the la- 
borer; and this change should, in my opinion, be 
advocated by all agricultural papers. 

As to the care and management of sheep, I will 
mention a few facts of importance. 

Where large flocks are kept together, the}^ should 
have plenty of range, and large yard room if yarded 
at night. Plenty of salt, with three to four ounces 
of sulphur to each half-bushel, placed so that they 
can have access to it at all times, is very essential. 
In wintering sheep, a great saving can be made by 
giving them plenty of range in pasture, or on green 
rye sown for their benefit in the fall. Very little hay 
or grain is required for sheep that have plenty of 
pasture range while the ground is bare in winter; 
and sheep wintered in this way are healthier, and do 
better. 

As to the different breeds, each has its special ad- 
vocates and admirers. While one man finds all his 
ideas of excellence concentrated in the Cotswold, 
another will prefer the Merino or Southdown. Of 
these three varieties, each has its peculiar character- 
istics and advantages. According to my experience, 
which is corroborated by that of many others, more 
success attends the crossing of the different breeds 
than in breeding distinct breeds. Although this 
principle is ignored by many writers, I am satisfied 
it is true. 

One advantage that sheep possess over other varie- 
ties of stock is, that the carcass can be disposed of 
for mutton at any age, and costs very little if any 



208 THE WESTERN FARMER 

more to produce than other kinds of meat; while 
the lieece will usually pay all the cost of keeping. 
And as both items, the wool and the carcass, are 
sources of profit, both items demand the attention of 
the wool grower. A sheep that will combine in the 
same animal both these qualities in perfection, is the 
sheep demanded by the western farmer. While the 
American Merino, it is generelly acknowledged, has 
the superior claim in respect to wool, the Cots wold 
and Southdown are far more profitable for mutton. 
The Leicesters are so similar to the Cotswolds, and 
they are so generally mixed together, that none but 
experienced breeders can recognize any difierence 
between them, that I do not speak of them as a sepa- 
rate class, although I think they are inferior to the 
Cotswolds. I am satisfied that the wandering Meri- 
no, weighing one hundred pounds, will consume as 
much food as the lazy Cotswold weighing two hun- 
dred pounds. I am also confident that the most 
profitable sheep for the western farmer is a cross be- 
tween the Cotswold and the Merino. The fleece of 
this cross is heavy, compact, and of good quality. It 
is also highly prized by the manufacturer. Lambs 
produced by breeding Cotswold bucks on good Me- 
rino ewes are strong and healthy, and will weigh at 
maturity about one hundred and fifty pounds; while 
the weight of a flock of Merinos will hardly average 
one hundred pounds. The fleece of this cross will 
usually average nine to ten pounds; while the aver- 
age weight of the Merino fleece is flve to six pounds. 
This cross produces a sheep that is more healthy, 
more profitable, and in my opinion better adapted 



AND STOCK GROWER. 209 

to the prairies of the west. In this cross breed the 
liabihty to foot-rot is also avoided, as the feet of the 
Cotswold and Southdown are always sound. 

In breeding this cross, I would still use Cotswold 
bucks until the second or third cross; but a cross 
back on Merino bucks, in time, might, I think be ad- 
visable, in order to retain, to some extent, the lead- 
ing characteristics of the Merino, as I am quite 
doubtful whether sheep raising can ever be made as 
profitable in the west with any other breed of sheep 
as a basis. While many of our theoretical writers 
advocate the principle of keeping the different 
breeds separate and distinct, which is all right 
enough for the purpose of preserving the distinct 
types or breeds in their purity, ^ am satisfied that, 
for ordinary stock purposes, the practice of crossing 
different breeds of either hogs or sheep, possesses 
many advantages over that of raising full-bloods. 
Change, the inevitable law of nature, is written upon 
the face of all material things. There are no fixed 
types in the animal kingdom. The nationalities of 
mankind grow up under fixed laws of the universe, 
and flourish so long as the surrounding conditions 
of life are favorable. By a change of these favora- 
ble conditions of life, nations degenerate. So with 
the domestic animals. The name of Bakewell is fa- 
mous throughout England and America by reason of 
his success in producing new types and improve- 
ments in domestic animals. One of our noted authors 
on sheep husbandry charges Bakewell with extreine 
selfishness, in not imparting to the world the secret 
of his success. Xow it is quite evident to my mind. 



210 THE WESTERN FARMER 

that Bakewell carried down to the grave no secret of 
his success, and never entertained any secrets. Be- 
ing of a practical turn of mind, he possessed an intu- 
itive perception of the physiological laws of animal 
life; and being surrounded by favorable conditions 
of life that he did not fully comprehend, he followed 
up the plans and principles of breeding which led to 
his great success. Those fixed conditions in nature 
of bringing together opposite characteristics of the 
same class or family of the animal kingdom, were 
understood by Bakewell as being the essential prin- 
ciples of successful reproduction. By this same law 
of nature, the crossing of different species meets 
with success; while breeding in on the same class 
of stock, tends to degeneracy, I find, by experience, 
that a cross between a Cotswold and a Southdown 
produces a vigorous and healthy oflspring; also that 
a cross between a Southdown and Merino meets 
with like success. While the Merino may be as 
hardy as the Cotswold, for the western country, I 
have very indifferent success in raising full-blood 
Merino lambs; and I find that this is the complaint 
of most other breeders in the states. The same dif- 
ficulty is also experienced in seeking to raise other 
breeds pure by themselves, to a greater or less ex- 
tent; but by crossing the different breeds, the re- 
sult is entirely different — the produce are much 
more hardy and vigorous, and the liability to loss 
is greatly diminished In a flock of seven hundred 
pure bred and healthy Merino ewes, I bred two hun- 
dred on Cotswold bucks, four hundred on Merino 
bucks, and one hundred on Southdown bucks, all at 



AND STOCK GROWKR. 211 

the same time, with about one hundred larg-e-frame 
coarse-wool native ewes on iVlerino bucks. The 
lambs were mostly dropped about the lirst of April, 
in cold, stormy weather. I succeeded in raising 
about two hundred and iifty full-blood Merino lambs 
from the four hundred Merino ewes: while from the 
two hundred Merino ewes crossed on Cotswold 
bucks, I raised about two hundred lambs. I at the 
same time had pure-bred lambs dropped by Cots- 
wold ewes and Southdown ewes. The lambs of the 
Cotswold cross being stout and vigorous, it was easy 
to raise by hand all that were deserted by their dams; 
while the full-blood Merino lambs so deserted, are 
difficult to raise by hand, and generally are all lost. 
Merino ewes are poor sucklers, and noted for desert- 
ing their lambs. The lambs from tl.e Merino ewes 
crossed on Southdown bucks were strong and vigor- 
ous, and none were lost except where deserted by 
their dams. My full-blood Cotswold lambs were 
apparently more tender, and some of them died 
without any apparent cause, as they were well cared 
for. Some full-blood Southdown lambs were lost, in 
the same way. With my coarse native ewes crossed 
on Merino bucks, I had the best success; the larger 
share of them having two lambs each, and being 
great milkers, they raised their lambs with very 
little trouble. 

This last cross makes a good class of sheep to 
grade up on Merino bucks for common stock pur- 
poses. As a basis for estimating the relative value 
of the two kinds, say at from eight to twelve months 
old, reckoning the value of the pure Merino lambs 



212 THE WESTERN FARMER 

at $4, the Cotswold cross would be at least $6, after 
making reasonable allowance for any prejudice that 
I might entertain in favor of the Cotswold cross. 

i^ow as to the idea of retaining the original breeds 
in their purity, and breeding in that way, as advo- 
cated by many theoretical writers, we should bear in 
mind that these breeds, as such, do not occur in na- 
ture, but by the aid of man's intelligence, they have 
become established. On the same principle, if a su- 
perior type can be produced and maintained by 
intelligent crossing, why retain the originals ? 

With regard to the business of wool growing be- 
ing overdone in the country by vast herds accumu- 
lating in California and the territories west, we 
should bear in mind, that the periodical seasons of 
drouth that are sure to visit that whole country, will 
continue to operate as a check against over-produc- 
tion, and thus guarantee to the farmer of the older 
states a safe invCvStment if his business is carried on 
in a regular manner through a series of years. The 
keeping of sheep in as small flocks as possible, and 
guarding against over-stocking, are what the wool 
grower should never lose sight of. 

As to preparing for market and marketing wool, 
there is not at present sufficient inducement to the 
wool grower to prepare his wool free from dirt. On 
the contrary, I am inclined to think that the dirty 
wool has the advantage in the market. And unless 
the farmers of a certain section of country can or- 
ganize, and establish a wool depot, for assorting and 
grading their wool under the superintendence of 
competent and reliable men, appointed by them- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 213 

selves, the present condition of the market must 
continue to exist. These wool depots have proved 
a success generally, where resorted to in the eastern 
states, and there is no reason why they should not 
prove so in the west. 



214 THE WESTERN FARMER 



CONCLUSIOK 



OAK HILL STOCK FARM. 



HAVING, at much expense, fitted up a farm of 
about twelve hundred acres, that is specially 
adapted to growing stock, I shall in the future, as in 
the past, endeavor to grow such classes of stock as 
are peculiarly adapted to the climate of Iowa, and 
other western states. 

In the selection of stock for breeding purposes, I 
have spared no pains in trying to obtain the best 
specimens of the most popular families of Short 
Horns, and my special object in the future will be 
to improve upon the present stock, by judicious 
crossing and breeding, and a healthy and proper 
system of feeding. 

While many of the leading stock breeders of the 
west have more or less sickness in the form of 
colic and other diseases arising from bad feeding, 
and bad water, I can say with truth, I have not had 
a single animal of the Short Horn f mily that has 
been in any way afflicted, or required any medical 
treatment whatever, in the last three years ; and this 
fact of itself proves the healthy condition of all my 
herd of Short Horns. While I do not advocate the 
starving system of any kind of stock, but on the 



AND STOCK GROWER. 215 

contrary, find good liberal feeding necessary to pro- 
duce good stock of any kind ; at the same time, a 
complete success in growing stock is based upon 
the two leading principles of proper care and atten- 
tion at all times, and the no less important principle 
of a proper knowledge of the adaptation of the va- 
rious vegetable products of the soil, to the different 
conditions of animal life. What to feed, when to 
feed, and how to feed, are the leading questions 
with the stock grower, and for want of this knowl- 
edge, a partial or complete failure attends the efforts 
of many of our stock growers. 

The Short Horn family, which is becoming more 
appreciated throughout all portions of the country, 
and the prejudices of the people fast giving way 
under a more intimate acquaintance with this class 
of stock, are facts that have been gaining ground 
for the last fifty years, and hence the continued de- 
mand, at increasing prices, for the " Improved Short 
Horn." The Short Horn enterprise of America is 
no South Sea bubble, no transient scheme of specu- 
lation, but on the contrary, is an enterprise that is 
sure to demand the leading and most important con- 
siderations of the western farmer. 
' In no country in the world, or to no people on 
earth, is the Short Horn of more value than to the 
j farmer of the western prairie. Massive in size, with 
I a physical development that no other class of the 
1 bovine race can hope to attain ; its early develop- 
' ment and quick growth, with a capacity for putting 
on flesh that is unequaled by any other class of 
stock, with the fact of great physical vigor, that is 



216 THE WESTERN PARMER ■ 

80 necessary to withstand the severe climate of our 
prairie winters, are some of the characteristics that 
tend to give the Short Horn its great advantage 
over all other breeds of cattle, in the corn growin i^ 
region of the west. 

In the breeding of swine, the black, or Berkshire 
breed is probably destined to supersede all other 
breeds, in the more northern portions of the United 
States, and for the more intermedite portion, 
or between thirty-eight and forty-two degrees north 
latitude, the Poland China is, I think, destined to 
hold the favorable opinion of the western farmer. 

The crossing of these two breeds for stock hogs 
has many advantages in producing healthy, vigor- 
ous, and good feeding stock. 

In the selection of Berkshires, I have many of the 
most noted families represented in my stock, and 
shall continue to import good breeding animals 
each year, from the best stock in the country, to 
cross on the several families now kept in breeding. 

Of the celebrated Poland China, I have specimens 
from difterent breeders, such as Magee, Moore, and 
Sissons, and others, and a great diversity, I iind, is 
created by different breeders, in this class of swine, 
in breeding for different objects, and under differ- 
ent conditions of climate, as well as food. The 
more common habit of growing swine in southern 
Ohio, in a favorable climate, and on clover pastures 
in summer, gives a larger bone and coarser frame, 
but a full development of body ; while the western 
m of corn feeding gradually reduces the size 



AND STOCK GROWER. 217 

of the bone, and gives more meat in proportion to 
gross weight. 

The common practice of western breeders has 
been to breed out the white, and establish the more 
desirable black color, which has, within a few years, 
changed some of the leading characteristics of the 
Poland China, in the west. 

In growing sheep on the western prairie, my ex- 
perience, each year, more fully confirms the fact 
that the American Merino will necessarily have to 
be superseded by the coarse wool breeds, but a 
flock produced by a cross of the best coarse wool 
bucks on Merino ewes will produce a more valu- 
able flock for the western farmer than any one pure 
breed. I shall continue to breed the Cotswold and 
Southdown breeds pure, and improve my stock 
by selections of the best breeding animals to be 
found in the country. A flock of cross breeds, 
quite valuable for starting a flock, will be kept on 
my farm, and for sale to farmers who desire to start 
a hardy flock of sheep. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 219 



Table showing the quantity of seed required to 
the acre. 



NAME. Quantity of seed. 

Wheat lito 2 bu 

Barley 1| to 2| bu 

Oats 2 to 4 bu 

Rye 1 to 2 bu 

Buckwheat f to 1| bu 

Millet 1 to l|bu 

Corn I to 1 bu 

Beans 2 to 2J bu 

Peas 21 to 3^ bu 

Hemp . 1 to 1| bu 

Flax l|to 2 bu 

Rice 2 to 21 bu 

Broom-corn 1 to 1| bu 

Potatoes 5 to 10 bu 

Timothy 12 to 24 qts 

Mustard 8 to 20 qts 

Herd grass 12 to 16 qts 

Flat turnip 2 to 3 lbs 

Red clover 10 to 16 lbs 

White clover 3 to 4 lbs 

Blue grass 10 to 15 lbs 

Orchard grass 20 to 30 lbs 

Carrots 4 to 5 lbs 

Parsnips 6 to 8 lbs 



220 THE WESTERN FARMER 



Table showing the number of seeds in one pound, and 
weight per bushel. 



Nmuber of 

NAME. seeds per lb. 

Wheat 10,500 

Barley 15,403 

Oats 20,000 

Rye 23,000 

Vetches 8,300 

Lentils 8,200 

Beans 600 to 1,300 

Peas 1,800 to 2,000 

Flaxseed 108,000 

Turnip seed 155,000 

Rape seed 118,000 

Mustard (white) 75,000 

Cabbage seed 128,000 

Mangel Wurzel 24,600 

Parsnip seed 97,000 

Carrot seed 257,000 

Lucern seed 205,000 

Clover (red) 249,600 

Clover (white) 686,400 

Rye grass (perennial)... 334,000 

Rye grass (Italian) 272,000 

Sweet Vernal grass 923,000 



Niunber of 


lbs. per bu. 


58 to 64 


48 to 56 


38 to 42 


56 to 60 


60 to 63 


58 to 60 


60 to 65 


60 to 65 


50 to 60 


50 to 56 


50 to 56 


75 


62 


20 to 24 


14 


9 


58 to 60 


60 to 63 


59 to 62 


20 to 28 


13 to 18 



APPENDIX. 



^ 
^ 



THE WOOLS 



THE UNITED STATES 



By JOHN I. HAYES, 

Secretary of the National Association of Wool Manvfacturen 



From the Annual Report of the Department of Agriculture 
for 1872. 



AND STOCK GROWER 225 



THE WOOLS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



FEW of our growers of wool are thoroughly 
informed as to the specific uses of the various 
wools of diflerent breeds and their various grades. 
It is the purpose of this investigation to describe 
the wools of the United States from the stand-point 
of the manufacturer rather than from that of the 
grower. A precise knowledge of the peculiar re- 
quirements of each branch of the woolen manufac- 
ture for the kinds of wool needed for any particular 
fabric, is not only an interesting department of tech- 
nical knowledge, but one inuring directly to the 
pecuniary advantage of the wool producer. It is 
also important to manufacturers that such knowl- 
edge should be possessed by those upon whom they 
are dependent for wool supplies. It is to this lack 
of intimate acquaintance with the peculiar wants 
of the various branches of the manufacturer, rather 
than to climatic or other impossibilities, that the 
wants of the mill owners are not more completely 
met. 



226 THE WESTERN FARMER 

DEPENDENCE OP MANUFACTURERS UPON 
DOMESTIC WOOL. 

Nine out of ten of the wool manufacturers of the 
United States, if asked the question, " What is the 
most pressing necessity of your manufacture?" 
would answer, " We want more domestic wool." 
The enlightened governments of all manufacturing 
nations have seen that the supply of domestic wool 
is the first and chief dependence of their manufac- 
ture. Seeing this, scarcely a hundred years ago the 
ruling sovereigns of western Europe, by introducing 
Merino sheep into their respective countries, did 
more to immortalize themselves than by any feats of 
arms. The King of Saxony introduced Merinos from 
Spain into his kingdom in 1776, and Frederic II., 
about the same time, introduced them into Prussia. 
Merinos were domesticated in Hungary by the great 
Maria Theresa, and in France by Louis XVI., in 
1786, and with what results? The influence of the 
Saxony breed is seen in all fine German broad- 
cloths. In Prussia eighteen per cent of her exports 
are Merino woolen goods. Hungary furnishes the 
supply of the raw material for the unequaled fabrics 
of Austria. The soft and fine Merino dress-goods 
of France are in use all over the civiUzed world. 

In the United States domestic wool is the very 
foundation of the wool manafacture. Very careful 
statistics, collected in 1864, show that, of all the 
scoured wool used in the woollen mills of the United 
States, over seventy per cent was of home growth. 
Of four thousand and seventy-three sets, two thous- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 227 

and one Hundred and seventy-one were employed 
wholly upon American wool. Of nine hundred and 
thirty-one mills, seven hundred and sixty-seven 
used domestic wool principally, while only forty-six 
mills in the whole country used foreign wool alone. 
No foreign wool was used in the western states. As 
the number of mills at the west has greatly increas- 
ed, while the use of foreign wool in them is still 
unknown, the proportion of domestic over foreign 
wool used in all our mills has, without question, 
greatly increased. The new mills which have sprung 
up at the west and in the interior will obviously use 
domestic fleece, on account of the saving of trans- 
portation, the facility of selection and purchasing, 
and the opportunities for effecting saving to both 
manufacturer and wool grower, in the exchange of 
cloth for wool. But there &re general reasons which 
lead all manufacturers who can use American wools 
to prefer them. Our machinery is adapted to the 
working of our own wools, and our best skill, found- 
ed on an experience of their distinctive characters 
is exercised in manipulating them. Although we 
may import limited supplies of foreign wool, an 
ample domestic supply would regulate the cost of 
imported raw material. As a result of the economic 
law, that no nation does nor can safely continue to 
import more than one-tenth of all it consumes, we 
cannot afford to imjiort and pay for all the raw ma- 
terial which our machinery is capable of working up. 
If the domestic supply of wool be permanently cur- 
tailed we must inevitably curtail our manufacture, 
and the whole country will suffer from a less abun- 



228 THE WESTERN FARMER 

dant provision of comfortable clothing for the great 
mass of our people. The failure, therefore, of a 
domestic supply of wool would be as fatal to our 
mills as the drying up of the streams of water which 
move them. It is from a practical conviction of 
this fact that the most intelligent American wool 
manufacturers and their powerful representative 
body, the National Association of Wool Manufac- 
turers, are the firmest advocates of adequate custom 
duties upon domestic wools, as well as upon manu- 
factured goods. The manufacturers bear willingly 
the very heavy burden of the greatly increased cap- 
ital required by the higher cost temporarily imposed 
by the increase of the wool duties, from two motives : 
first, from the conviction that wool production is 
just as much of an American industry as cloth pro- 
duction, and is entitled to equal defence against 
foreign competition; secondlj^ they appear to be 
profoundly impressed with the patriotic sentiment 
of Lord Bacon, among the wisest of our English 
fathers, "Let us advance the native commodities of 
our own kingdom, and employ our own countrymen 
before strangers." They would also adopt as a 
special injunction the other words of Lord Bacon, 
"Let us turn the wools of the land into cloths and 
stufis of our own growth." There is reason to be- 
lieve that, if the present scale of duties shall be 
maintained, there will be no limit to the manufac- 
ture of domestic wool, except that of its production. 
The president of the Manufacturers' Association 
thus presented his views at Syracuse in December 
last: — 



AND STOCK GKOWER. 229 

"The theory of protection requires time to test it, 
especially as to its eifects on production ; and the 
results of the theory which we advocate and which 
we are putting into practice, will be fully manifested 
in its eft'ects on the extension of woo] culture. For 
myself, I have no doubt that, if another six years 
should elapse before the meeting of the next con- 
vention, when we come together we shall find that 
the consumption of American wool, now about one 
hundred and twenty- five million pounds, will aggre- 
gate more than three hundred millions annually. 
Of that I have no question under our present sys- 
tem. The demand will exhaust the supply, for 
there need be no check to the growth of wool in 
the United States, or to its extension over parts 
where no attention is now paid to sheep husbandry." 

The preference of our manufacturers for domestic 
wools is founded upon a recognition of their good 
qualities. When we speak of American wools, we 
refer to the predominant class, wool from grades of 
the Merino with the native or degenerated English 
breeds, characterized by a greater or less predomi- 
nance of Merino blood. There are certain qualities, 
common to the varying breeds, which are due to the 
influence of our climate and soil, but especially to 
the system of keeping, consequent upon the thrifty 
habits of our people; and the most influential fea- 
ture in their keeping is the fact that our sheep are 
uniformly and liberally fed, and hence produce a 
uniform, sound, and healthy fibre. Thus, the most 
characteristic qualities of American wools are due 
to the moral and economical habits of our people. 
20 



230 THE WESTERN FARMER 

There are other special qualities due to the blood at 
present predominant, that of the so-called American 
Merino. As to the qualities of the full blood and 
grade merino wools of the country, the executive 
committee of the National Association of Wool 
Manufacturers, consisting of the most experienced 
and successful manufacturers of the United States, 
in a public report made in 1866, say: — 

"'In a class of rabrics entering more largely, per- 
haps, than any other into general consumption, that 
of flannels, the superiority — due principally to the 
adaptation of the common wools of this country, 
their strength and admirable qualities — is so mark- 
ed as to almost exclude the foreign flannels. Amer- 
ican fancy cassimeres compare favorably in finish, 
fineness, and strength with those imported. Our 
delaines, owing again in a great measure to the ex- 
cellence of our merino combing-wool, surpass the 
fabrics of Bradford, at the same price. The excel- 
lence of American shawls was admitted at the Great 
Exhibition at London." 

And they subsequently add : — 

"It has been the experience of all nations that 
domestic supply has been the first and always the 
chief dependence of its manufactures, and the pecu- 
liar character of the material has impressed itself 
upon the faerie which each country has produced. 
Thus, in the fine wools of Saxony and Silesia we 
have the source of German broadcloths; in the 
combing- wools of England, the worsteds of Brad- 
ford ; and in the long merino wool of France, the 



AND STOCK GROWER. 231 

origin of the flannels and cassimeres. The peculiar 
excellencies of merino wools have given origin to 
our flannels, our cassimeres, our shawls, and de- 
laines ; and they give soundness and strength to all 
the fabrics into which thev enter." 



SPECIFIC WOOLS ENTERING INTO AMERICAN FABRICS. 

Common flannels involve a very important con- 
sumption of wools, from the coarsest common or 
native to medium merino wools ; opera flannels, 
from the very finest wools ; blankets, from the most 
ordinary Mexican to noils ( the shorter or refuse 
fibres obtained by the process of combing the best 
combing-wools), up to the medium merino wools; 
also the shorter wools of English blood, such as the 
Down and Cheviot wools. Shawls, the principal 
varieties, embrace all grades of Merino wool up to 
pick-lock, some special varieties being composed of 
worsted combing-wools ; felts, generally the lowest 
grades of wool, but some varieties of felting, such 
as piano and table covers, medium merino wools. 
Knit goods, such as knit shirts, vests, skirts, draw- 
ers, cardigans, hose, involve a very important con- 
sumption of wool, from the lowest to high grades of 
merino, certain fancy varieties, composed of worsted 
yarns, requiring English combing-wools. Fancy 
cassimeres, occupying a prominent place in the list 
of fabrics, require all grades of merino wool, prin- 
cipally the medium ; meltons, all grades of merino 
wool, without burr, principally medium ; overcoat- 



232 THE WESTERN FARMER 

ings, such as beavers, moscows, Esquimaux, medium 
to finest grades of merino wool. For all mixtures 
of wool with shoddy, the best and longest merino 
wools are now regarded as most profitable, for the 
reason that they "carry" more of the short fibre of 
the wool substitute. Thin wool coatings require 
from medium to the finest merino wools ; fancy 
ladies' cloakings, the finest long merino wools, and, 
in some varieties, raohair, or the wool of the Angora 
goat ; gentlemen's worsted coatings, the finest long 
merino combing wools. For certain varieties of 
delaines, coburgs, and cashmeres, ladies' dress 
goods, with cotton warp, medium long merino 
wools are used ; for Caledonian ladies' cloakings a 
limited use is made of mixtures of fine long comb- 
ing-wools and English or Canada combing-wools ; 
for serges, moreens, alpacas, Italian cloth for linings, 
mohair lustres, lastings, damask for furniture, for 
furniture covering, curtains and table-cloths, reps 
for furniture and curtains, webbing for reins and 
girths for horses and for suspenders, bunting for 
flags, military sashes, picture cords and tassels, 
clouds or nubias, Ristori shawls, braids and bind- 
ings, long English combing or Caiiada wools are re- 
quired ; for the warps of ingrain two and three ply 
carpets, the long carpet wools of Cordova and Chili, 
unsuited by their coarseness and unequal diameter 
for dress goods, are employed, the short wools for 
filling, and, for the cheaper carpets, the short and 
coarse Mexican and Texan wools ; for Brussels and 
tapestry, and Brussels and velvet carpets, the long 
Cordova and Chili carpet wools are used, for the 



AND STOCK GROWER. 233 , 

colored yarns the warp being of linen ; for the 
whites or very light shades, the best English or Can- 
ada combing-wools. 

The above list would seem to answer the question 
proposed for the next topic of inquiry : What kinds 
of wool shall be grown in the United States ? 

1. Merino looois. — This question, which is more 
often addressed to the manufacturer than any other 
by the wool-grower, can be answered much less 
definitely than might at first appear. If a majority 
of the cloth manutacturers of the United States 
were asked this question to-day, they would answer, 
" Give us the wool produced by a cross of the full- 
blooded Merino with a full-blooded Southdown," 
which would be a typical medium wool. A larger 
supply of wools of that class is in demand than of 
any other just at this time; but the production of 
such wools would be impracticable as a system in 
our ordinary methods of sheep-husbandry. The 
manufacturers of classes of dress goods, into which 
delaine wools enter, have the same views. Mr. 
Walworth, the mtelligent buyer of wools for the 
Pacific Mills, who is an authority, says : — 

" The w^ool growers of this country have run too 
much into the same quality of wool, viz., about 
three-fourths blood. Now, there is a certain amount 
of this quality of wool needed, but the markets 
have been flooded with this one kind, while medium 
or one-half blood, and one-fourth blood wools are 
absolutely scarce. . . . There is a great demand for 



234 THE WESTERN FARMER 

medium or one-half blood wools, and I think it will 
be a permanent demand." 

Still, he adds the very sensible advice : — 

" Let the farmers grow a greater variety of wools, 
and not all just about the same quality." 

On the other hand, the manufacturers of opera 
flannels and doeskins, complain that they cannot 
get in the country any stocks of the superfine wools 
of Saxon blood, the type of which was the old wool 
of Washington County, Pennsylvania. They can- 
not get them simplj because they cannot afford to 
pay the high prices necessary to encourage the cul- 
ture of these small-sized and comparatively unpro- 
ductive sheep. It is absurd to say that the finest 
wools cannot be grown in this country, especially 
in Virginia and East Tennessee. Mr. William 
Chamberlain, in a letter, dated March 21, 1870, 
says, those who assert that superfine wools cannot 
be grown in the United States are mistaken. He 
further observes : — 

" There are some grown fit for the manufacture 
of the very finest goods, and there would be much 
more if we had a market at remunerative prices, I 
have, within the last fifteen years, imported nearly 
five hundred Silesian sheep, of the best quality, and 
have bred them ever since, and they continue to do 
well, as well as any breed of sheep I am acquainted 
with. My shepherd, who has the care of them, is a 
Silesian, an experienced shepherd, and a man of 
perfect integrity. He had the care of one of the 
most celebrated flocks in Germany, and assures me 



AND STOCK GROWER. 235 

that wool does not deteriorate in this country, and 
he knows no better country for the growth of fine 
wool. My flock averages fully eight pounds of un- 
washed wool. I have sold it for the last two years 
to one manufacturer in Connecticut. He has made 
what are called doeskins, and good judges assure 
me that the cloth compares favorably with the best 
German doeskins, . . . The cross of the original 
Saxon and Silesian has resulted very satisfactorily, 
and has been used in Saxony extensively for a num- 
ber of years ; and it is found that the quantity of 
wool is increased without prejudice to quality. Fine 
wool can be grown in all parts of our country where 
the soil is dry, but in the south the fleeces become 
less dense, and of course lighter ; on the sea-coast it 
gradually becomes coarser. You may be fully as- 
sured that our country is a good place to grow fine 
wool. All we want is a decent market, and manu- 
facturers can be supplied without importing it from 
Australia and Germany." 

While cultivators, with means to encounter tem- 
porary depression of prices, through perseverance 
in the culture of a perfected race will ultimately be 
rewarded by winning appreciative customers, it is 
vain to expect American wool growers, except in 
rare cases, to pursue the culture of fine wool here 
when it is rapidly disappearing even in the countries 
which originated it. The observations of Mr. Moll, 
chairman of the jury on wools, at the Paris Exposi- 
tion, are pertinent on this subject. He says : — 

"The superfine wools, like the fine wools, are pro- 



236 THE WESTERN FARMER 

duced from animals of the Spanish race ; but the 
race has been so completely transformed by art (se- 
lection, prolonged st bulation, and sr' "ial feeding) 
that they can no longer acclimate then, selves in the 
country where they originated, or, at least, accom- 
modate themselves to the keep to which ihe original 
flocks were submitted. These wools measure from 
one-fourth to one-eighth centime of a millimeter in 
diameter. Their length rarely surpasses four centi- 
meters. They serve for the fabrication of th^ most 
precious of the woolen fabrics, imitation ca^lnnere 
shawls, merinos, and extra-fine cloths, mixed tissues 
of wool, silk, &c. 

Commerce holds these wools in the highest esti- 
mation; but as the improved machines and processes 
enable us now to make from wools of lower quality 
stufts having as handsome an appearance, those 
wools cannot secure a price proportionate to the ex- 
penses of their production, which are very great, in 
consequence of the care which the animals require, 
and the small weight of their fleeces. This branch 
of industry is diminishing rather than augmenting. Many 
of the superfine flocks of France have disappeared. 
Saxony, the cradle of this race, which has received 
the name of Electoral or Saxon, has now almost 
none. Silesia alone still possesses a certain number, 
which, with the flock of Naz, and some others, dis- 
seminated in Bohemia, Moravia., Hungary, Prussia, 
and Poland, furnishes the whole of the superflne 
wools used in Europe. 

" As to the superfine Merinos, the Electoral type, 
or that of Naz, it is evident that they can be kept 



AND STOCK GROWEE. 237 

only with a view to the production of wool alone, 
for of all the ovine races there is, perhaps, none which 
has less aptitude for fattening, and every time that 
the attempt has beem made to increase their corpu- 
lence it has produced an alteration in the wool. It 
is true that this wool is of greater value than any 
other, but this advantage is more than counterbal- 
anced by the small weight of the fleeces and the 
more minute care which these animals demand. 
Shall we ever succeed in making a race suitable for 
the butcher, and at the some time preserve the fine- 
ness of the wool? It is doubtful. It is desirable, 
however, that Europe should preserve a certain 
number of flocks of the tine type, if only for raising 
reproducing animals, to renovate the blood and 
preserve a certain tineness which threatens to dis- 
appear." 

Mr. Moll concludes his references to this race by 
briefly mentioning the requisites of soil and climate 
for their culture : — 

" They must have other physical conditions than 
those which suit the mutton sheep; a climate dry 
and warm, a land with light permeable soil, and 
rather poor than rich, and a nourishment rather 
tonic than substantial." 

Mr. Sanson, the most eminent of recent French 
writers upon the zootechny of sheep, observes 
that : — 

" It is evident that in the greater number of the 
agricultural situations upon the European continent, 
the production of short wools cannot be economic- 



238 THE WESTERN FARMER 

all}^ pursued, as they are fitted only for the pastoral 
system, which is every day losing its importance in 
favor of the intensive culture." 

Mr. William Latham, a very intelligent English 
flock-master of Buenos Ayres, in a work devoted to 
suggestions for the improvement of the wools of that 
country, rejects "the exquisite Prussian Silesian 
Merino" as unsuited to that country for general pur- 
poses. " Destroy its purity of blood, mestize it," 
he says, " and you have relatively nothing. Only 
under the highest degree of breeding, intelligence, 
and minute care could such a breed maintain its 
way." He regards with but little favor, too, the 
Saxon Electoral Negretti, "although beatifally true 
in shape, fine and soft wool, with a fair weight of 
wool in the higher strain of blood. Their habits 
and characteristics," he continues, "are the result of 
special treatment and selection; a high artificial tem- 
perature, treatment, and stimulation of the skin, in- 
creasing the skin-growth, and producing the numer- 
ous rolls or folds which cover the whole body, and 
creating the habit of excessive exudation of oleagin- 
ous matter, superinducing a diminution of the car- 
cass, and loss of (corporeal vigor, all of which render 
them and their progeny ill-adapted to harmonize 
with conditions essentially difterent from those which 
produced these specialties. Exposure of their pro- 
geny to inferior conditions of maintenance necessa- 
rily increases the tendency towards diminution, and 
causes an actual diminution of the carcass; the wool, 
though retaining the fineness, becomes short and 
weak in staple, and the fleeces open and light." 



AND STOCK GROWER. 239 

Before dismissing the subject of superfine wools, 
we would remind the readers of the Agricultural 
Reports of a remarkable article by Mr. C. L. 
Fleischmann, in the report of 1847, which attracted 
much deserved attention when it appeared. It will 
be remembered that this account contains a most 
minute description of the laborious and expensive 
system of the superfine sheep husbandry in Prussia, 
then at its highest prosperity, which quite disheart- 
ened the American growers of Saxony sheep. The 
very extensive collection of wools illustrative of this 
report was deposited by Mr. Fleischmann in the 
collections of the American Institute of New York. 
At the time of the exposition of woolens at the fair 
of the Institute in 18d9, we had the pleasure of 
seeing this collection, and the gratification of ob- 
serving that it was in excellent order. With our 
present ideas of wool staple, it appears almost in- 
conceivable that these wools could have been a 
staple, agricultural product. The length in no case 
exceeded an inch, and was often considerably less. 
The fieeces were represented as weighing one and a 
half to two and a half pounds, and the fibre was 
marked by the distinctness and number of its curves 
or wrinkles, the curves being so sharply defined as 
to give the impression that they had been artificially 
crimped. It would be a graceful courtesy on the 
part of the American Institute to transfer this inval- 
uable collection, which cannot be replaced, to the 
vigilant care of the curator of the National Museum 
in the Department of Agriculture. 

While the dem.and for the medium wools for 



240 THE WESTERN FAKMER 



some years to come is likely lo be the most pressing, 
the remunerative demand for the very fine wools 
last spoken of will probably even diminish. There 
is likely to be an increased demand for a class of 
merino wools, which Mr. Sanson, the scientific 
writer on sheep before referred to, calls intermediary 
wools, quite different from our medium wools. He 
observes that " between the common and fine wools, 
or more exactly between the fine and superfine 
wools, a new quality has been introduced within a 
few years, which is of great interest in France." 
This new quality is that of the intermediary wools, 
differing from the fine in reality less in their diame- 
ter than in their length. This wool is not only very 
important for clothing purposes, as the improve- 
ments in power loom weaving necessitate the use of 
this long wool for warps, but for combing purposes, 
and especially for a class of goods known as novelties. 
Clothing manufacturers in this country have but 
recently appreciated the qualities of these interme- 
diary wools, for to this class belong principally the 
Australian and New Zealand or Tasmanian wools, 
heretofore almost unknown, but which have been 
very largely imported by our manutacturers during 
the last year, notwithstanding the high duties. Thie 
fineness, length, soundness of staple, and remark- 
able freedom from grease, have brought them into 
deserved favor. Manufacturers have thus a new 
standard of excellence in wools, and American 
wools having the qualities of this standard cannot 
fail to be in demand. 

The method of reaching by amelioration of our 



1 



AND STOCK GROWER. 241 

present Hocks this new standard is a question of 
much practical interest to our wool growers. That 
they may have a view of the means by which such 
a result has been attained elsewhere, we will refer 
to methods advised by Mr. Latham, before quoted, 
for ameliorating the flocks of Buenos Ayres. Mr. 
Latham regards the Austrahan type as the model 
for imitation in the present demands of the wool 
manufacture, and believes that the means to reach 
that standard is the persistent use of rams of such 
special type of the Merino family as will most effec- 
tually produce the desired improvement. The race 
for which Mr. Latham avows his unqualified prefer- 
ence for the purpose of amehoration is the pure 
French Merino, of which the best type proceeds 
from the Cabana Imperial, or the sheep-fold of 
Rambouillet. The view of Mr. Latham, that the 
flocks of Australia have been improved by the 
French Merino, is abundantly confirmed by other 
authorities. He says : — 

"I believe that it is to this blood of Rambouillet 
French Merino, and George HI. Merino, that we 
must look for the regeneration of our flocks. I am 
confirmed in this opinion by observation here, by 
the knowledge of the want of the great manufactur- 
ing interest in Europe, and by the practice of Aus- 
tralian breeders. . . . The beautiful little Negretti, 
with its fine, soft fleece, may be a more attractive 
object, but it cannot fulfil the requirements of our 
flocks so well as the solid Rambouillet and English 
Merino, from whose progeny, in a few crosses only, 

a size of carcass, a thinness of shape, a weight of 
21 



242 THE WESTERN FARMER 

fleece, length, fineness, and texture of wool can be 
obtained ( as I can testify from actual observation ) 
equal, if not superior, under proper management, 
to nine-tenths of the sheep of the French Merino 
Cabanas. 

" The distinctive characteristics of the Rambouillet 
variety of Merino are those of considerably larger 
carcass (two-year old rams, of the acclimated race 
of this breed in the author's own flock, having at- 
tained weights of two hundred and two hundred 
and fifty pounds), longer wool, weightier fieece, 
fewer skin-folds, and better fattening qualities than 
the German varieties admit of. These are results 
obtained by a course of treatment conducive to cor- 
poreal vigor and healthfulness, which will render 
them better reproducers, and better calculated to 
meet, without prejudice, changed conditions, and 
better adapted to enter into harmony with them, 
and to receive the healthful modifications which 
local influences impose under a system consistent 
with them. 

" In the treatment under which the French Merino 
types have been formed, there is less stimulation of 
the skin, less exudation of oleaginous matter ; hence 
a large amount of the food taken is assimilated into 
the substance of the body and the wool, while the 
fullness of the carcass, brightness of look, vigor of 
carriage, greater length, brightness, strength, and 
the less greasy or heavy condition of the wool, may 
be contrasted with the shrunken habit of carcass, 
dull, anxious look, and wool overcharged with 
grease, which the German Merinos exhibit. It is 



AND STOCK GROWER. 243 

also noticeable that the Rambouillets, from their 
more vigorous and healthy habit and absence 
of excessive stimulation of the skin, are less subject 
to the " scab " and other cutaneous diseases, less 
liable to lung aiiections, the rams less exposed to 
constitutional " breakdown " in course of " service," 
and the wool, being longer, stronger, and less 
greasy, is not so likely to collect impurities, and 
suffer prejudice from burs, grass-seeds, &c." 

We ought not to omit the testimony of the more 
intimate observers of this race of sheep in their own 
country. Mr. Moll, in his capacity of chairman of 
the jury on wool at the Paris Exposition, and with 
specimens of all the wools of the world before him, 
observes : — 

" While Germany has had regard only to fineness, 

I our skilful cultivators in the region of Paris have 

') occupied themselves more with the quantity, and 

1 have not neglected the question of meats. They 

' have modified the race, and have given it, by means 

I of an intelligent selection, suitable nourishment and 

] care, more size, forms better suited to fattening, 

\ and, above all, to a more abundant fleece ; and to a 

wool, not 80 fine indeed as that of Germany, but 

j one which, in consequence of improvements in 

machines and processes, responds much better to all 

requirements, and which, thanks to its length, 

strength, and elacticity, is suited equally to the card 

or the comber. 

. "The imperial sheep-fold of Rambouillet has 
mostly contributed to this happy movement, of 
which it has taken the initiative, and in some sort 



244 THE WESTERN FARMER 

the direction. We may say that the Rambouillet 
type is at present, in an economical point of view, 
and for the rich countries of the vine-bearing zone, 
the most perfect type in existence of line-wooled 
sheep." 

The qualification as to region, in the last para- 
graph, suggests that this race would be more likely 
to flourish in southern than in northern sections of 
this country. 

In making these citations, and the suggestions 
founded upon them, which are addressed less to the 
mere wool-growers, whose main object is the rearing 
of sheep for the different purposes of wool-growing 
and meat-production, than to the class which com- 
bine with sheep gro^ving the higher object of intro- 
ducing to this country the best and most suitable 
blood that the world can produce, and who aim, 
with this blood, to create for their country a superior 
race, — it is very far from our purpose to suggest a 
general modification in the qualities of the charac- 
teristics of American fieece. The great mass of 
these American wools suits our machinery and pre- 
vailing fabrics. The demand for the intermediary 
wools is as yet comparatively limited, but will in- 
crease with the expansion of our fine merino comb- 
ing-wool manufacture, which, for the production of 
all wool dress goods, did not exist four years ago, 
but is now successfully inaugurated, as the adapta- 
tion of these wools for both clothing and combing 
purposes is better appreciated. As these wools are 
in so high demand in Europe, the demand must be- 
come more extensive here. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 245 

With regard to the French Merinos as a source 
from which to infuse new blood into certain of our 
flocks, we are aware that the greater number of those 
introduced into the country a few years ago were 
regarded with but little favor, as they were selected 
solely with reference to their excessive size, without 
regard to other characteristics, their superior keep- 
ing and unusual care, while at that time there was 
no demand for their peculiar qualities of fibre. Dr. 
Randall observes that, " The stock imported in 1840 
from the royal flock at Rambouillet was not over- 
grown. Their size, however, exceeding that of the 
American Merino, was an entire novelty, and a most 
captivating one to the public eye." With the new 
demand for long and tine intermediary fleeces, the 
introduction of these regenerators which have proved 
so efiicient in Australia and Buenos Ayres, might 
well be again essayed ; and if refinement is to be 
attempted with this blood, that stock might furnish 
a better foundation for refining than the vigorous 
and productive American Merinos, which, with all 
their excellencies, are still lacking in the fineness of 
fibre and exemption from excessive grease, which 
characterize the French and Australian standards. 

The practical importance of the subject warrants 
a few words upon the much discussed subject of ex- 
cessive yolk or grease in fleeces. It is well known 
that the tendency of American wool growers to pro- 
duce heavy fleeces is a subject of much complaint 
with manufacturers. The first object with the man- 
ufacturer, provided he can have other requisite qual- 
ities, is to have clean, light wool. The yolk, which 



246 THE WESTERN FARMER 

causes the principal portion of shrinkage in scour- 
ing, is of hardly any value in the present methods 
of washing. Where unwashed wools are exported, 
the removal of the yolk by climatic influences some- 
times adds very materially to the value to the man- 
ufacturer of the whole clip in certain seasons. Thus 
the prevalence of great rains over an extended re- 
gion in Australia, where there is no provision for 
shelter, just before the annual shearing, has, some- 
times, by washing out the yolk, made the whole 
wool-clip exceptionally valuable. It is argued by 
breeders of authority, that, to produce the greatest 
amount of clean wool, with the greates economy to 
the wool grower, he must also produce a certain pro- 
portion of oil ; that up to a given point the increase 
of wool may be measured by the increase of oil ; 
that it is not just to charge upon the wool growing 
community that they produce uselessly heavy fleeces, 
while they can demonstrate that their growth of 
clean wool is increased by a proper attention to 
grease and yolk, and the quality of the wool may be 
increased by this attention ; that if the wool grower 
has a flock of light shearing sheep, and desires to 
increase the clip of his future flock, he can accomplish 
his object by the use of a greasy ram ; and that this 
is owing, not to the grease alone, but to the fact that 
with a proper secFetioti of oil and yolk, there are 
usually found those other points which make a ram 
valuable, such as firmness and thickness of fleece, 
uniformity of style over the whole surface, and that 
most attractive feature of a good sheep, a well- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 247 

wooled head, with a clean, strong, and expressive 
face. 

On the other hand, writers of equal experience 
express the opinion that no species of Merino ram 
ever produced more than twenty pounds gross 
weight fleece without excessive feeding or unneces- 
sary housing, and that it is advisable to raise such 
sheep as can be raised without such treatment. 
Certainly the freedom of the fleeces of the French 
Merino from excessive exudation of their yolk, with 
their magnificent development both of carcass and 
of wool — a fact noticed not only by Mr. Latham 
but by all the French writers — is an indication that 
the best development of flesh and fibre is not neces- 
essarily connected with undue production of yolk. 
An infusion of the blood of this race may perhaps 
tend to the improvement so much desired by manu- 
facturers. 

It should be noted that Dr. Randall, the highest 
authority on American sheep-husbandry, denounces 
with great severity the breeding for yolk, although 
maintaining that the American Merinos, when bred 
and treatefi judiciously, do not produce more yolk 
than is necessary for the economical production of 
wool, and declaring that there is no other national 
family of Merino, and no other breed of sheep what- 
ever, that can vie with the American family in the 
very great improvement in weight of washed or 
scoured fleeces within the last few years. In the 
exhaustive monograph on the American Merinos, 
published as an appendix of the report on wool and 



248 THE WESTERN FARMER 



woolens in the report of the Paris Exposition, he 
speaks as follows: — 

" This remarkable era in Merino breeding, com- 
mencing in sound measures of improvement, but 
culminating during the war in the excess which I 
have described, developed several fashions in breed- 
ing and management, which were altogether new in 
the business. Quality of wool was little talked 
about. Weight of fleece was the primary consider- 
ation, and it became the custom of many breeders 
to weigh their fleeces in the yolk, because, I suppose, 
it gave them an advantage over others. A rigid 
system of housing their sheep from contact with rain 
or snow the year round would preserve all the yolk 
in the fleece, and thus would add to its weight sev- 
eral pounds. The holders of the larger flocks could 
not do this without great inconvenience and expense. 
The former, therefore, were enabled to go into news- 
papers with far higher statements of weights of 
fleeces. Inasmuch as the system of housing and 
preserving all the yolk in the wool gave the fleece 
externally a very dark color, the color soon became 
a prime necessity of fashion, and, as the weight in- 
creased, and the color became darker with the yolk, 
the latter was as carefully bred for as the wool. I 
have seen it literally dropping from the fleece under 
a hot sun. As a high fed sheep produces consider- 
ably more wool and yolk than an ordinarily kept 
one, a system of pampering was also extensively 
resorted to. Many of the summer and winter hous- 
ed flocks were fed grain to the utmost verge of im- 
mediate safety, and far beyond the bonds of ultimate 



1 



AND STOCK GROWER. 249 

safety; for such continued forcing is destructive to 
the constitution and longevity of Merino sheep, as 
all will bear witness who have tried or observed its 
effects. 

"Under the above system of breeding and treat- 
ment, and sometimes without any special pampering, 
Merino rams' fleeces in the yolk are frequently re- 
ported as weighing upward of twenty-five pounds, 
and some have risen to thirty pounds. Ewes' fleeces 
range from ten ^to fifteen pounds, and sometimes 
individual or small lots have gone higher. Unfor- 
tunately these weights aftbrded scarcely an approx- 
imate criterion of the actual weight of the wool, the 
proportion of yolk to the wool possessing no uni- 
formity. 

"The practice of housing sheep from rain and 
snow for the preceding objects is not a fraud, if dis- 
tinctly avowed to all buyers. But I think it is pro- 
ductive of no benefit, and of considerable injury. 
It is a useless waste of a great deal of time, and 
occasionally produces loss in other respects. The 
new-mown hay or grain must be left to get wet on 
the ground, to the serious deterioration of its quality, 
rather than have the precious weight-giving and 
color-giving yolk washed out of the fleece. And 
there can, it appears to me, be no reasonable doubt 
that this habitual non-exposure to the ordinary 
changes of weather must, in the course of time, to 
a greater or less degree, beget an incapacity to en- 
dure such exposures Avith entire impunity. Besides, 
this housing, if ever so frankly proclaimed, tends to 
wSrp the judgment of all buyers, and especially in- 



250 THE WESTERN FARMER 

experienced buyers. If it did not give a fictitious 
value to the animal — rendering it more salable than 
sheep of equal value not thus treated — where would 
be the use of it? It is perfectly notorious that it, 
with early shearing, does so alter the appearance of 
the sheep, that a pair of twins of the closest re- 
semblance, one thus treated and the other not, 
scarcely look as if they belonged to the same variety, 
and the "petted" one will far outsell the other. It 
is considered the breeder's right, in all kinds of do- 
mestic stock, "to put the best foot forward," and it 
is equally done with other breeds of sheep; but it is 
a pity that a higher standard of action cannot be 
permitted to prevail. Such fashions beget induce- 
ments to direct fraud. Thousands of painted sheep 
(painted to the true color by a preparation of oil, 
burnt umber, and a little lampblack) are annually 
hawked about the country with pedigrees as artificial 
as their color, and sold as genuine Simon Pures. 

" Fitting sheep for sale by pampering is fraudu- 
lent, for it is never avowed or admitted, and if it 
were, there can be no honest or decent excuse for a 
practice which isdirectl}' and undeniably fatal to the 
well-being of the animal. We have no right to 
poison what we seli, because we know there will be 
fools to buy it, and to buy it more readily because it 
is poisoned. Another result has followed this indis- 
criminate scramble for large fleeces. Those who 
have carried it farthest have usually considerably 
depreciated the quality of the wool. The finest 
fleeces are not generally the heaviest. The greatest 
combination of wool and yolk — however coarse, 



AND STOCK GROWEK. 251 

uneven, and even hairy, the former — is what these 
extremists have looked for in their breeding rams; 
and the }>rogeny of such rams must, of course, par- 
take of the same characteristics." 

2. Combing-wools. — The distinction between these 
wools and the card or cloth wools, before treated of, 
may be thus stated, Combing-wools are those spec- 
ially fitted for the process of combing by hand or 
machinery, which process consists in drawing out 
the fibres so that they may be straight and parallel ; 
the shorter portions, called "noils," being removed 
by this operation. The fibres having been rendered 
straight and parallel are twisted or spun, and the 
yarn is called worsted. The ends of the fibre being 
covered by the process of spinning, the yarns are 
smooth and lustrous. 

Card or cloth wool is wool fitted for being carded. 
By this process the fibres are placed in every possi^ 
ble direction in relation to each other, adhering by 
the serratures of the fibre, which are more numerous 
in the wool adapted to carding. They are thus fit- 
ted for felting, and the ends of the fibre are free to 
be drawn out into the nap. While card-wools are 
required to be fine, or comparatively so, short in 
staple, and for the highest fabrics full of spiral curls 
and serratures — qualities possessed by the wool of 
which the Merino and Saxony fleeces are types — 
the combing-wools, on the contrary, must be long in 
staple, from four to seven inches, comparatively 
coarse, having few spiral curls and serratures, and 
possessing a distinct lustre. These qualities are 
possessed in perfection by the English sheep of the 



252 THE WESTERN FARMER 

Lincolnshire, Leicester, and Cotswold races; and in 
a less degree by the Cordova wools of the Argen- 
tine Republic and the Donskoi wool of Russia. 
Comparatively long, tine wools of the Merino race, 
from two and a half to three inches in length, are 
combed for making coburgs, merinos, and similar 
fabrics, but they are not classed in the trade as comb- 
ing or worsted wools. 

An unprecedented demand for these wools has 
arisen in all manufacturing nations within the last 
ten or fifteen years, and the prices have more than 
doubled within that period. This is due, first, to 
the vast improvements in machinery for combing 
made within that period; and, secondly, to the late 
scarcity of cotton, and to the discovery that by the 
use of these wools with cotton warps, an admirable 
substitute is found for fabrics formerly made from 
the fibre of the alpaca. 

Some of the fabrics made from combing-wooi 
have been already mentioned. The list could be 
greatly extended as these wools compose the princi- 
pal portion of the wool or part wool fabrics for 
female wear, the consumption of which is constantly 
increasing. The contexture and patterns of the fab- 
rics, or their combinations with silk, cotton, mohair, 
Merino wool, and China grass, are perpetually and 
almost indefinitely changed to suit the caprices of 
fiashion. Not only new tissues but new names ap- 
pear each year, to conform to the fickleness of 
female fancy. A hundred diflerent tissues, not 
styles, are made by a single house in Bradford. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 253 

But the basis of all the fabrics remains the same — 
English combing-wool. 

The magnitude of this manufacture, and our 
present dependence upon foreign nations, are shown 
by the following statistics: Great Britain had, in 
1871, six hundred and thirty worsted-mills, with 
thirty-five thousand seven hundred and forty-six 
power-looms, employing directly one hundred and 
nine thousand five hundred and fifty-seven opera- 
tives; while she had one thousand eight hundred 
and twenty-nine woolen-mills running thirty-four 
thousand one hundred and forty-six power-looms, 
employing one. hundred and twenty-five thousand 
one hundred and thirty operatives, the worsted man- 
ufacture employing only fourteen thousand five 
hundred and seventy-three less persons than the 
woolen manufacture. Our importations of dress 
goods — composed principally of combing-wool — 
were, for 

1869—63,278,264 yards, of declared value of . . . $15,463,943 
1870—67,490,126 yards, of declared value of . . . 16.552,393 

Our importations for cloths, for a corresponding 
period, were, for 

1869— Of a declared value of $7,688,343 

1870— Of a declared value of 9,543,911 

Worsted yarns of the finer grades were made in 

this country only to a very limited extent prior to 

1860 or 1861, except those made of shorter wool 

delaines, the yarns manufactured prior to that date 

1 being principally designed for carpets. The intro- 

1 duction of the finer worsted yarns was due to our 

i 22 



254 THE WESTERN FAKMBR 

command of the Canada wools of English blood, 
which were admitted free under the reciprocity 
treaty. In 1866 an estimate submitted to the reve- 
nue commission placed the capital employed in the 
manufacture of yarns and the varied kinds of worst- 
ed goods — exclusive of the manufacture of delaines, 
in which American Merino wools are used with 
shorter Canada wools — at $8,000,000, and the yearly 
value of the product of worsted goods at not less 
than $10,000,000. 

It was remarked in 1869 by Mr. Mudge, the com- 
missioner for wool and woolens at the Paris Expo- 
sition in 1867, that — 

"At the time of th;it exposition we had not then 
perfected any one single article of all-wool worsted 
fabrics in this country (not referring to mixed fabrics) 
which was worthy of being represented there, or, in 
fact, in any exposition. It is a source of pride and 
pleasure to all Americans to consider that, in so short 
a space of time, so much has been done. If you look 
at the exhibition of worsted fabrics at the Fair of the 
American Institute in New York you will see there 
a variety of worsted fabrics of which you need not 
be ashamed." 

Mr. Mudge spoke modestly, for he was the pio- 
neer in a field in which he has achieved brilliant suc- 
cess. And we add that all the money expended by 
the Government of the United States, on account of 
the Paris Exposition, will be a hundred-fold repaid 
by the new arts (not fabrics), which that patriotic 
commissioner imported into his own country from 
Europe. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 255 

Some comments upon the exposition of woolen 
goods at the fair of the American Institute in 1869, 
made by Mr. John L. Hayes, Secretary of the Man- 
ufacturer's Association, express more fully the pro- 
e:res8 made in the worsted industry : — 

"During the gloomiest days of the war an associa- 
tion was formed in Washington of patriotic ladies, 
who pledged themselves to wear nothing except of 
American fabrication, and we were witnesses to the 
chagrin with which they discovered the extremely 
limited variety of worsted goods manufactured here. 
How much would they have been relieved if they 
could have seen such a display of worsted goods as 
was exhibited at our exposition ! Besides the beau- 
tiful delaines and coburgs of the older manufacture 
— the fabrics originated since the war — the worsted 
plaid poplins, the Caledonian cloakings, serges, print- 
ed cashmeres, alpaca and mohair lustres, mohair 
poplins of all shades, tissues not simply noticeable 
for being new, but for intrinsic excellencies, enable 
us to supplant foreign productions. * * Five years 
ago all our furniture and curtain stuffs, under the 
genera] term damasks, were imported. * * Two al- 
coves displaying draperies of all wool and common 
damasks, silk cotelines, reps, and terrys of various, 
though chaste, designs and colors, illustrate the ad- 
vantages which the American consumer has in de- 
pending upon home manufacturers who will not in- 
sult their taste by the glaring designs usually pro- 
duced for our market." 

To the above enumeration might have been added 



256 THE WESTERN FARMER 

the important fabrics, buntings and lastings, achieved 
since the war. 

This enumeration should convince wool-growers 
how earnestly the worsted manufacturers are look- 
ing to them to supply the combing-wools, whose de- 
ficiency is the only impediment, under a stable sys- 
tem of protection, to an indefinite expansion of the 
worsted industry. In 1865 the worsted manufactu- 
rers were most solicitous for a renewal of the reci- 
procity treaty, under which they obtained the Cana- 
da combing-wool free of duty. In 1866 they entered 
into arrangements with the wool-growers which led 
to the tariff of 1867, and imposed a duty upon Can- 
ada combing-wools, practically amounting to twelve 
cents per pound and 10 per cent, ad valorem, and 
placed corresponding duties on worsted goods. In 
1868 active efforts were made by the Boston Board 
of Trade and other commercial bodies for a renewal 
of the reciprocity treaty, while the inducement of 
free Canada combing-wools was urged upon the 
manufacturers as a motive for joining the movement. 
The manufacturers refused the bait so temptingly 
offered, and in October, 1868, the Manufacturers' 
Association, at its annual meeting, all the principal 
representatives of the worsted industry being pres- 
ent, unanimously passed the resolution — 

" That any advantage which might accrue to wors- 
ted manufacture from the free introduction of comb- 
ing-wools under the proposed reciprocity treaty with 
Canada would be more than counterbalanced by 
checking the impulse which has already been given 
to the growth of combing-wools here; while the ad- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 257 

vocacy of the reciprocity treaty for the purpose of 
obtaining Canada wools free would be a violation of 
the spirit of the agreement with the wool-growers, 
upon which tbe present tarifi' on wool and woolens 
was founded." 

Here was a practical exhibition of faith in the 
protective policy, and of confidence in the enterprise 
and intelligence of the farmers, which it was believed 
would lead them to cultivate with vigor this new 
field for production which the national legislature 
had opened. 

It will be interesting to agricultural readers to 
know the individual views of some of the leaders in 
this department of the woolen industry, and we ap- 
pend some extracts from remarks made at one of 
the social reunions of the Manufacturers' Associa- 
tion, not only to show the importance attributed by 
these practical men to the growth of combing-wools, 
but to show how prudently, while dwelling upon 
this point, they deprecate the abandonment of other 
branches of wool production. 

Mr. E. B. Bigelow, the first president of the Man- 
ufacturers' Association, and who, more than any 
other, is entitled to the honor of the conception of 
the policy which has so happily united the wool- 
growers and wool-manufacturers, remarked as fol- 
lows : — 

'' The combing-wool industry, and the coarse and 
fine grades of the card-wool industry, have been al- 
luded to, and a question arises as to their relative 
importance at the present time. It is well known 
that the card-wool industry constitutes by far the 



258 THE WESTERN FARMER 

larger part, probably four-fifths of the whole; and 
of that the extreme fine grade forms only a small 
percentage. The combing-wool industry, as has 
been stated, has recently assumed considerable im- i 
portance. The principal hinderance to the further < 
rapid extension of this branch of manufacture is the 
limited supply of raw material. Clothing- wools, or i 
card-wools, as they are sometimes called, are pro- 
duced in superabundance the world over, while there 
is a deficiency of long combing-wools. There is 
nothing that would give such an impetus to the man- 
ufacture of worsted fabrics in this country as a full 
supply of home-grown long combing-wool. Could 
our farmers — especially on the Atlantic slope, near 
large towns, where their mutton would find ready 
sale — be induced to engage more extensively in the 
productions of such wools, I am sure they would 
find it a source of immediate and permanent profit. 
It would also be a national benefit, not only by fur- 
nishing the raw material for an important branch of 
manufacture, but by supplying a much-needed arti- 
cle of food. It is the growing of the long combing- 
wool and its manufacture which have contributed so 
largely to the prosperity of England. The thirty 
millions of sheep which she supports are mainly such 
as produce this description of wool. 

" The value of the worsted manufacture in England, 
in 1857, was £18,000,000 (or $90,000,000). Since 
that time it has largely increased. In 1864, besides 
supplying the wants of the people, she exported fab- 
rics to the value of £16,000,000 (or $80,000,000). In 
the town of Bradford alone, the worsted manufac- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 259 

tnre increased in value from £8,000,000 in 1863, to 
£13,000,000 in 1866. To France, as well as England, 
the worsted manufacture is an important source of 
wealth. During my recent visit to Roubaix, I saw 
evidences of material prosperity, such as I had rarely 
seen before. Its population, then seventy-six thous- 
and, had doubled during the preceding ten years — 
forty-three thousand of them being employed di- 
rectly or indirectly in the manufacture of worsted 
stuffs. 

" I have stated that the clothing-wools are produced 
in superabundance. I ought to have excepted the 
very fine wools, the production of which is rather 
decreasing than increasing in all wool-growing coun- 
tries. One reason for this decrease is that it is less 
profitable to raise than the coarser grades; another 
is that the fashions and the times have changed. 
Instead of fine-wool fabrics many people now wear 
coarse-wool fabrics. Improvements in the processes 
of manufacture have enabled manufacturers to make 
from the coarser fibre certain fabrics which are as 
satisfactory to the consumer as the finer wool fabrics 
of former days. It is desirable that we should have 
a home supply of all the varieties and grades of wool 
required by our manufacturers, and I hope that our 
association will strive to bring about that result, and 
that in view of the growing demand and deficient 
supply of long combing-wool, it will make special 
efibrts to extend that branch of our sheep-hus- 
bandry." 

Mr. Mudge, late commissioner, &c., said: — 

" I can only say to the wool-growers and agricul- 



260 THE WESTERN FARMER 

turists of this country that there is a field more vast 
than their imagination can take in, in the expansion 
of the worsted industry. It is the great branch 
which has engaged the attention of the two greatest 
nations of Europe, France, and England, during the 
last ten years. The great extension of their manu- 
facturing industry has been in this branch of manu- 
facture. * * * I believe the agriculturists of our coun- 
try should pay, not entire attention, but more atten- 
tion to the growth of long and lustre wools. There 
is a large amount of these wools now required for 
the use of the worsted machinery of this country, 
and we shall extend our manufactures in this branch, 
provided both wools and worsteds continue under 
the fostering care of the Government." 

Mr. J. Wiley Edmands, the present president of 
the Manufacturers' Association, said: — 

" The interests of wool growers being intimately 
connected with ours, they are subject to all that be- 
falls us as manufacturers. One difficulty we meet 
with is from the fickleness of the demand for goods 
from changes of fashion, and the different require- 
ments of our customers as to the styles and charac- 
ters of goods to be furnished to them. We have to 
meet the demand, and the changes required of us 
we must require of the wool growers. 

"It is true that it is but a few years since we called 
on the wool grower to furnish us the finest wools, 
because then the products from fine wools were in 
demand by our customers; but now all this has 
changed from the changes of fashion, and the pres- 
ent demand is largely for the coarser wool — for the 



AND STOCK GROWER. 261 

staple that makes tlie Scotch tweed and other cloths 
that predominate in the fashions of the day. The 
fickleness of the demand is illustrated in my experi- 
ence as a manufacturer of dress goods. It has been, 
until very recently, our aim to bring out our delaine 
fabrics so that they should be soft to handle, and 
in finish to imitate the all-wool French merinos. 
Now, as the fashion is, many styles of these goods 
must be made as stiff* and hard as possible. We 
have to accommodate our fabrics to the changeable 
taste of the ladies, and the consequence is we now 
require a large supply of the long, hard, combing- 
wools. At the present time it is the long combing- 
wools that we want, and shall continue to want, for 
our worsted goods. Coarse wools are in demand, 
too, for cloths for men's wear, but I doubt not that 
we shall very soon find the clothing wool manufac- 
turers calling for fine wool. Then the farmer will 
find encouragement to produce the best wools, but 
at present there is a surplus of fine wools grown in 
the world, and they command a low price compared 
with the coarser staple. I venture to say that it will 
not be three years before we shall find the fine wools 
of the country in demand again. At present, long 
combing-wools are in request, because the worsted 
goods have been lately introduced, and they are now 
the most remunerative of our fabrics. The comb- 
ing-wools of this country are on the increase, and 
we are now beginning to receive them from Ken- 
tucky, and from Missouri and Oregon; and I doubt 
not that, with the present stimulus^ their production 
will be abundant in a very few years." 



262 THE WESTEKN FARMER 

This extract shows that it is not for the interest of 
American manufacturers, as a whole, to favor the 
production of any special class of wools. 

There are some general considerations resulting 
from the history of prices, and condition of wool 
production in the world, which we cannot pass by. 

The iirst of these considerations is the relative 
prices which combing-wools have attained in the 
markets of the world. In 1855 the price of English 
combing-wool was Is. 12d. In 1864 the price of the 
same wools was 2s. 4. Cordova wools in 1855, S^d.; 
in 1864, ll^d. Australian fleeces averaged in 1855, 
Is. 8d.; in 1864, Is. lOd. Cape fleeces in 1855, Is. bd.; 
in 1864, l5. id. Buenos Ayres, fair mestizo, in 
1855, 7d.; in 1864, 8d. Thus, while in nine years 
the combing fleeces had doubled in price, the fine 
wools had about held their own. The reason for 
this increased price of combing-wool is very plainly 
shown by the report of the Chamber of Commerce 
of Bradford, of 1869, which states that, while in 
1861, one million two hundred and eighty-nine 
thousand one hundred and seventy-two spindles 
and forty- three thousand and forty-eight power- 
looms were employed in England in the production 
of worsted yarns and goods, two million one hun- 
dred and ninety-three thousand two hundred and ten 
spindles and seventy-one thousand six hundred 
and sixty-six power looms were in active employ- 
ment in 1868; and since then the ratio of increase 
in England, and in many places on the continent, is 
believed to have been still greater. 

The successful production of combing wools is 



AND STOCK GROWER. 263 

limited to populous districts where there is a demand 
for mutton, and to countries where there is an im- 
proved agriculture. Thus England and Ireland 
grow the most and best combing-wools, while a little 
is grown in France, Transylvania, Hungary, and 
Holland. England and France need all the comb- 
ing wool produced in Europe, and are already com- 
peting with us for the combing wools of Canada, 
that country being the most important source of 
production on this continent. Thus, while the 
production of fine Merino wools in this country is 
liable to be affected by the competition of the vast 
pastoral regions of the southern hemisphere, Aus- 
tralia, the Cape of Good Hope, and the boundless 
pampas of South America, and without protective 
duties would be certainly overwhelmed, there is no 
probability of overproduction in the growth of 
combing-wool, and protective duties on these wools 
are desirable, rather to stimulate production than to 
resist foreign competition. 

The next practical question arising is, " Where in 
this country shall combing-wools be grown?" The 
president of the National Wool Growers' Associa- 
tion asserts that the Cotswolds and Leicesters are 
well adapted to profitable breeding for mutton and 
wool combined, in situations where the lands are 
rich, not subject to drought, and are adapted to root 
culture, and where good city markets are easily 
accessible. " They are great favorites," he says, 
"with dairy farmers and with grain growing farmers 
who wish to keep but a few sheep." 

Mr. Walworth, the practical wool buyer, before 



264 THE WESTERN FARMER 

referred to, after urging the superior profits of long 
wool production, says : — 

"Now, although it may be most profitable to keep 
combing-wooled sheep, it will not do for every one 
to go into it indiscriminately. Men who wish to 
have large fiocks of sheep, say several thousand, or 
even a thousand in a flock, ought not to keep these 
sheep, but will do better with the Merino. Men 
living on the prairies ought not to keep them, for 
the prairies will not grow combing-wool, but I think 
they should in many parts of Kentucky, Ohio, the 
hills of Pennsylvania, and New York, and in the 
best parts of Michigan; and in particular I would 
suggest to those farmers who have now in many of 
these states coarse native sheep, whose wool is com- 
mon, and does not yield much combing or delaine, 
that if they would cross those sheep with a Leicester 
or Cotswold ram — I like the Leicester best — in one 
year they would receive more than fifty per cent for 
their outlay, for their sheep would be larger and 
would yield, probably, twenty per cent more delaine 
or combing-wool, which sells for more and sells 
quicker. Let them follow this cross up for a few 
years, and they might, with a very little expense, 
improve the breed of all such sheep. I do not 
recommend them to buy very costly rams for com- 
mon purposes. Let men who make breeding a 
business buy the fancy bucks. 

"I would not recommend the farmers in the far 
west, or in very new countries, to keep these sheep, 
for in such places the breed is apt to run out, and 
the wool becomes brushy and hairy, and of very 



AND STOCK GROWER. 265 

little value. 1 think Michigan well adapted for 
delaine wools of the medium grades. In that branch 
I have always classed her next to Ohio." 

Another question is, " What breeds of combing- 
wooled sheep shall be kept ?" The editor of this 
report, in an address before the ITew York Agricul- 
tural Society, thus states the prevailing opinion 
among growers, and the desiderata as to further 
knowledge upon this subject: — 

"The Cotswolds appear to have the preference of 
by far the larger portion of the mutton producers, on 
account of size, hardiness, weight of fleece, and 
weight of tibre. For the production of early lambs 
upon native or grade stock, the Southdown is the 
preference of three-fourths of the breeders, although 
the Cotswold is liked by many. The Leicester — 
the basis of English improvement, to which nearly 
all her improved breeds owe an infusion of their 
best blood — is too highly bred to escape deteriora- 
tion under our careless practices. The Lincoln, as 
modified by the breeding of the last few years, is a 
magnificent animal, producing a lustrous combing- 
wool of great length ; and it is hoped the breed may 
gain a firm foothold upon certain districts character- 
ized by succulent and abundant pasturage and large 
yields of roots and grains. Much of the mutton 
stock of the country is so mixed and degenerate 
that an expert would be puzzled to tell what breed 
is predominant, and the opinions of the sheep- 
farmers as to the comparative merits of different 
breeds are consequently confused and erroneous. 
It is greatly to be desired that the efforts of honest 

23 



266 THE WESTERN FARMER 

and reliable importers and breeders of really fine 
animals should receive encouragement ; that a better 
acquaintance with the best types of the breeds may 
become general, and a more complete test of their 
comparative merits for different locations may be 
generally enjoyed." 

For the purposes of the worsted manufacture, the 
wool of all the English races above mentioned is 
desirable, even the fleece of the shorter wooled 
Down sheep is well adapted for delaine tissues of 
the coarser texture at present in demand. The value 
of the Leicester race for the production or a higlier 
quality of long combing-wool, appears not to have 
been duly estimated in this country. Leicester wools, 
pronounced by experts to be equal to the best 
English, are produced in Ohio, on the borders of 
Lake Erie. The report of the Chamber of Com- 
merce of Bradford on wool supply, issued for the 
purpose of instructing the British colonies and for- 
eign dependencies in the production of worsted 
wools, is the most authoritative statement as to the 
most desirable race for the production of combing- 
wools. Speaking of the Canada wools, the report 
says : " The bulk of this wool appears to be neg- 
lected Leicester, but is capable of improvement. 
There is a tendency in some parts to cross the native 
sheep with United States Merinos, but for the 
English market we recommend new Leicester rams, 
so as to impart length, lustre, and soundness to 
staple." Speaking of the Turkish wools, it says : 
" Crossing with Leicester rams would much improve 
these wools for this market;" and, of the Wallach- 



AND STOCK GROWER. 267 

ian, " Very suitable for the carpet trade ; could be 
considerably improved if crossed with Leicester 
rams," Of the New Zealand wool : " Large supplies 
of this wool now come to the English market, and 
are very much in favor, especially the long stapled 
wools, usually termed the Leicester breed, which, at 
the colonial sales in London, realize higher prices 
than much finer wools." These extracts leave no 
doubt as to the blood which is in the highest esteem 
for wool production simply, in the principal market 
for worsted wools in the world. To this may be 
added that the recent experiments of Mr. Lawes, of 
Rothamsted, established the fact that Leicesters 
rank first in the production of the highest amount 
of wool per hundred pounds, live weight; after them, 
in order, are Cotswolds, cross-breeds of the two 
former, and Sussex, Downs, and Hampshires, and 
full-blooded Sussex, Downs, and Hampshires.* 

The remarks preceding apply when the first ob- 
ject in view is the production of wool. But it 
must be borne in mind that for the abundant supply 
of combing wool, as a great national production, the 
raising of wool must be altogether secondary to the 
production of meat or mutton and lambs, and almost 
secondary to the production of manure. Mr. Dodge 
observes, in the address before referred to : — 



* An English correspondent of the " Country Gentleman," under date of 
July 8th, writes :— The demand for Lincolns is very great, one breeder alone 
having sold upwards of eighty rams already this season, though the trade 
seldom commences until August. They are mostly purchased for exporta- 
tion to Australia, Buenos Ayres, River Platte, &c., and are used to cross upon 
the native and Merino grades. It is said they answer the purpose better 
than any long-wool variety that has been tried, and a large trade has sprung 
up in consequence.— Ed. 



268 THE WESTERN FARMER 

" Few owners of long wooled flocks in this coun- 
try appear to understand practically the ditterence 
between fine wool and long wool husbandry, forget- 
ting that it is the destiny of the Merino to be kept 
for wool, of the Leicester to be killed for mutton, 
and holding the mutton sheep upon barely thriving 
rations, for the purpose of shearing once in each 
year. The folly of such a course is like that of a 
beef producer, who should let his animals run in the 
stock range, and expect the results of stall-feeding. 
The mutton breeds, like short horn cattle, are sim- 
ply machines for converting farm products into 
meats and fertilizers, the production depending up- 
on the regularity and freedom from friction with 
which the machinery runs — irregular feeding, an 
occasional scanty supply, undue exposure to cold, or 
temperature uncomfortably high, reducing inevita- 
bly the amount of flesh produced by neutralizing the 
amount of nutritive power of a certain quantity of 
food. To make mutton with the greatest profit, 
every pound of hay, roots, or grain fed must yield a 
fair result in flesh gained. Thus, while wool grow- 
ing may be successful in the midst of primitive, 
almost barbaric, practices in culture, mutton pro- 
duction involves arts of husbandry the most ad- 
vanced, and a knowledge of animal physiology the 
most enlightened." 

In England the production of combing-wool, the 
kind in greatest demand, was secured by breeding 
sheep which would attain the utmost possible weight 
of mutton, which could be fed to their utmost capac- 
ity, and would produce the largest amount of manure. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 269 

The mutton sheep is at this moment not only the 
ciiief animal product of England, but it is what it 
was declared to be long ago, " the sheet anchor of 
English agriculture." It is the chief animal product 
of Great Britain. The statistics published by the 
Royal Agricultural Society show that Great Britain 
had, in 1868, thirty million seven hundred and elev- 
en thousand three hundred and ninety-six sheep, 
live million four hundred a)id twenty-three thousand 
nine hundred and eighty-one cattle, and two million 
three hundred and eight thousand five hundred and 
thirty-nine pigs. The sheep is literally the basis of 
English husbandry. The agriculture of England, as 
a whole, is very simple. Four crops, in regular 
rotation, and mainly in the same order, constitute 
her great staples. Turnips, barley, grass, and wheat 
are said to be the four magical words at which the 
earth unlocks her treasures to the British farmer. 
The four-field or four-shift system, which pervades 
the greater part of the kingdom, consists of this suc- 
cession. The cash receipts are for the barley and 
wheat alone ; turnips and grass serve mainly to feed 
the sheep, which furnish mutton and wool to support 
them in their most important function, that of ma- 
nuring the turnip-fields upon which they are folded 
for the four years' rotation. Recent agricultural 
writers in England aflS.rm this to be the main object 
of English sheep-husbandry. Professor Coleman, of 
the agricultural college of Cirencester, in a paper 
recently read before the Royal Agricultural Society, 
on the breeding and feeding of sheep, says : — 
" It is not diflacult to show that sheep alone, apart 



270 THE WESTERN FARMER 

from their influence on the corn crops, will not pay 
a Hving profit, after all the expenses of growing the 
crops are considered." 

Other practical writers for the same journal declare 
that there is no profit in growing sheep in Kngland 
simply for their mutton and wool, but that culture 
of sheep is still an indisputable necessity, as there is 
no other means of keeping up the land. It is some- 
what surprising to observe, in view of the import- 
ance of the combing-wool manufacture of England, 
how little consideration appears to be given to the 
qualities or the quantities of the wool produced, the 
attention of agriculturists being principally directed 
to the fattening qualities of the animals. The rea- 
son is that the best quality of fibre is a necessary 
consequence of the highest culture of the animal. 
The early maturity and slaughtering give soundness 
to the staple, the wool from old sheep being brashy 
and rough, and the regular supply of artificial food, 
when pa'^turage is deficient, prevents that most ob- 
jectionable feature in poorly-bred wools — a long, 
spiry, coarse top, with a fine downy bottom. The 
length of the fibre is also the result of a suitable ali- 
mentary regimen, recent physiological observations 
having established the fact that the form and diam- 
eter of the filament depend upon the organization of 
the animal, while its length is determined by abun- 
dant nourishment. The quality of the wool being 
secured by good husbandry, where there is an ex- 
tensive worsted manufacture, agriculture need not 
concern itself about the variety or special character 
of the fibre. With the infinite variety of fibres every 



AND STOCK GROWER. 271 

wool which can be combed has its special use, and 
commerce and the wool-sorters' skill will secure for 
each its appropriate place. 

3. Cheviot Wools. — There is another class of wools 
occupying a position between combing and clothing 
wools, or adapted to special fabrics, both of worsted 
and cloth, which, in view of the new developments 
of sheep husbandry and wool manufacture in this 
country, deserves more attention than it has yet re- 
ceived. These are the wools of the Cheviot sheep» 
80 extensively bred in Scotland in place of the old 
Highland breed, and which supply the chief revenue 
of the vast estates of the noble families of Breadal- 
bane, Argyle, Athol, and Sutherland. 

The name of this race is derived from the moun- 
tains of Cheviot, in the county of Northumberland, 
England, extending into the county of Roxburg, in 
Scotland. The geological basis of this range is por- 
phyrytic, the beautiful conical mountains, mostly 
covered with grasses, ferns, wild thyme, and other 
plants, distinctive of trappian soil, rising to a height 
of two thousand to two thousand live hundred feet; 
beyond and in contact with them is the rugged 
country of the heath, the true habitat of the black- 
faced or Highland sheep. 

Before the middle of the eighteenth century the 
Cheviot sheep were confined to this district. A little 
less than a hundred years ago attention was given to 
their amelioration, and the new Leicester blood was 
introduced. The infusion of this blood was the more 
efficacious, as there is much reason for regarding the 
Leicesters and Cheviots as belonging to the same 



272 THE WESTERN FARMER 

type, the Leicester type, as it existed before tlie ame- 
lioration by Bakewell, prevailing in all the countries 
washed by the North Sea. These sheep moreover 
resemble the Leicesters in general appearance, being 
without horns and having white faces and legs. 

The race is now diftused in all parts of Scotland, 
except the rugged heath-covered districts, where the 
Highland race alone can find sustenance. The num- 
ber in 1856 was estimated by Mr. Stewart, in a mon- 
ogram of the race published m the French language, 
at three million seven hundred thousand. In the 
more southerly counties the sheep farms are com- 
monly about two thousand acres in extent. In gen- 
eral only a small part of the farm is cultivated, rarely 
more than fifty to one hundred acres, and that only 
for winter food for sheep. About one and three- 
fourths acres sufiice for one sheep, a farm of one 
thousand eight hundred acres sustaining about one 
thousand sheep. The artificial food is altogether 
subsidiary to the natural herbage of the farm. It is 
supplied during falls of snow, and consists of culti- 
vated grasses or the produce of the swamps, and the 
natural perennial grasses. These sheep have the 
facility of obtaining their food, even when the ground 
is covered with snow, by scraping away the snow 
with their feet, and they prefer the natural food, thus 
obtained, to dry provender. Protected by their close 
fleece, which prevents the penetration of rain and 
snow, they bear with comparative impunity the 
storms of the Scottish hills. They need shelter only 
from the driving snow-storms, which are often of 
terrible severity, the most common shelter being a 



AND STOCK GROWER. 273 

circular wall, without covering, of six feet in height, 
with a simple aperture for admission of the animals. 
Their limbs are of a length to fit them for traveling 
and enable them to pass over bogs and snows which 
a shorter legged animal could not penetrate. Mr, 
Lowe says that the entire management of these sheep 
in the northern part of Britain has no parallel in the 
same latitudes in Europe. In no other country sim- 
ilarly situated are sheep so entirely exposed to the 
inclemency of the weather without shelter of pens 
or houses. " Were these sheep," he says, " managed 
as in other parts of the continent of Europe, penned 
and fed in houses, and prevented from taking natural 
food, the mountains of the country could not main- 
tain one-fourth part of the present numbers." 

The Cheviots, although bred in purely pastoral 
regions, are grown primarily for mutton. The breed- 
er in the mountains, however, rarely fattens his sheep 
or lambs for market. They are turned over, at dif- 
erent ages in different districts, to be fattened by 
the farmer of the arable lands and lower and richer 
pastures. When fattened, their mutton is held in 
the highest estimation. In the more southerly coun- 
tries the increase of a flock of a thousand sheep is 
sold as lambs. The selling of the lambs takes place 
in August, and reaches from four hundred and fifty 
to five hundred and fifty, of which three-quarters 
are male lambs, and the rest young ewes; with one 
hundred and thirty to one hundred and fifty old 
ewes. These sales, with the washed fleece, make 
the whole return of the flock. In the north of Scot- 



274 THE WESTERN FARMER 

land these lambs are kept till three years old, and 
are then sold to be fattened. 

The Cheviot sheep blood amalgamates readily 
with that of the Leicesters, and a system of breed- 
ing has been extensively introduced for producing 
the first cross of the descent. The rams employed 
are the pure Leicester breed, and the progeny is su- 
perior in size, weight of wool, and tendency to fat- 
ten to the native Cheviot. The lambs of this descent 
are sometimes disposed of to the butcher, and some- 
times fed until they are shearlings, when they can 
be rendered as fat as the parent Leicesters, and not 
much inferior in weight; and they can also be raised 
to maturity under less favorable conditions of soil 
and herbage. The benefit, however, is said to end 
with the first cross. Mr. Lowe says that there can- 
not be a question that for general cultivation, in the 
high and tempestuous countries to which the Chev- 
iot breed is adapted, the race should be preserved in 
its native purity. Every mixture of strange blood has 
been found to lessen the character of hardiness, which 
is the distinguishing character of the race The beau- 
tiful breed of the Southdown s would seem to be of 
all others that which is best adapted to improve the 
Cheviot; and yet the experiments which have been 
hitherto made have shown that the mixed progeny 
is inferior to the native Cheviot in its adaptation to 
a country of cold and humid mountains. 

We have yet to speak of the new claims of this 
race to the attention of sheep breeders, resulting 
from the new demands of manufacture, and the 
fields recently opened to sheep husbandry. 



AND STOCK GROWER. 275 

The washed wool of the Cheviot sheep averages 
about three and a half pounds to each animal. It 
was formerly used wholly as a clothing-wool. Since 
the attention of breeders has been devoted to the 
fattening properties of the race, the wool has in- 
creased in length and diminished in fineness. More 
lately, and until quite recently, it has been princi- 
pally used for combing purposes. It is finer than 
the Cots wold wool, and can be advantageously mix- 
ed with English combing-wool. The recent appli- 
cation of the Cheviot wool, or a mixture of it, with 
fine Merino wools to certain cloths by the Scotch wool- 
en manufacturers has led to the modern fashion of 
wearing coarse clothes for business and morning 
costumes. 

The basis of the Scotch cassimeres, tweeds, and 
cheviots is the coarse Cheviot wool spun with a mix- 
ture of fine Buenos Ayres wool. The fabrics from 
this material are liked for hot climates, and have 
become a^ demand upon the continent. Even the 
manufacturers of Elbeuf, in France, so celebrated 
for their production of fine cloths, have been com- 
pelled to import the Cheviot wools, although they 
complain bitterly of the scarcity and high price. In 
view of these facts, it can scarcely be doubted that 
the demand for coarse wools for clothing purposes 
will be likely to continue, and for the production of 
such wools no race appears so well fitted as the Che- 
viot. • 

The new fields for sheep husbandry to which pub- 
lic attention has been recently called, comprising 
the vast natural pastures between the Missouri river 



276 THE WESTERN FARMER 

and the Pacific coast, the valleys and plains border- 
ing upon the great Sierra Nevada, where the dried 
grasses, becoming perfectly cured uncut hay, furnish 
perpetual resources for winter grazing, and offer in- 
ducements for the trial of the Cheviot race. If mut- 
ton production is to be attempted in this region, the 
Cheviot race is worthy of the first attention on ac- 
count of its hardiness and working qualities. If the 
cost of transporting live sheep by railroad from 
the base of the mountains to the Chicago mar- 
ket — as given by Latham, seventy cents per ani- 
YiioX — is not underestimated, the Scotch system of 
breeding upon the mountains for fattening upon the 
richer lands of the prairies, might be profitably pur- 
sued. 

4. Carpet Wools. — The questions connected with 
the production of carpet wools are of less interest to 
the American wool producer, because the culture of 
the animals producing these wools is not likely to 
be pursued as a final object where any purpose is 
entertained of improved sheep husbandry. Where 
stocks of these animals are kept, as the Mexican 
sheep of Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado, they 
are regarded valuable principally as a basis of im- 
provement by means of higher types, and their wools 
as points of departure to be hastened away from as 
rapidly as possible. Still, the economical question 
as to the propriety of encouraging the growth of 
these wools by legislative measures is so important 
that we cannot omit the facts and considerations 
which may throw light upon a subject of practical 
interest. In starting upon this inquiry it is necessary 



AND STOCK GROWER. 277 

to refer to the terms of the existing tariff on wools, 
establishing the basis of the classification, which is : — 

" Third-class, carpet, and other similar wools, such 
as Donskoi, native South American, Cordova, Val- 
paraiso, native Smyrna, and including all such wools 
of like character as have been heretofore usually im- 
ported into the United States from Turkey, Greece, 
Egypt, Syria, and elsewhere." 

It will be first observed that the name of the class 
— "carpet-wools" — designates only the most char- 
acteristic use. Combing-wools are largely used for 
carpets, all the whites in Brussels carpets being 
made of Canada or combing-wools of English blood, 
generally constituting not less than one-fifth part of 
the fabric, but this use does not entitle them to the 
designation of " carpet-wools." This designation 
really includes all those wools which are not strictly 
classed as clothing or combing-wools. It is an in- 
teresting feature of the present classification that it 
corresponds with that adopted, upon independent 
grounds, by the scientific writers upon wool in Eu- 
rope. Mr. Moll, the chairman of the jury upon wools 
at the Paris Exposition, concludes that all the wools 
of the world are naturally and philosophically class- 
ified into three great groups: 1. " Heavy wools," 
corresponding to our third-class, or carpet and other 
similar wools; 2. "Glossy wools," corresponding to 
our second-class or combing-wools ; 3. "Crimped or 
undulated wools," corresponding to our clothing- 
wools of Merino blood, or first-class, with the single 
exception of Down clothing- wools. He thus char- 

24 



278 THE WESTERN FARMER 

acterizes the first class corresponding to our third 
class : — 

" The hairy wools {laine apoils), Zachelwolle of the 
Germans, kempy wools of the English, are produced 
by the ovine races which approach the savage type. 
These wools vary much among themselves, as well 
in the proportion of hair as in its fineness, and in 
the length and value of this as of the wool. There 
are some — for instance, the summer Donskoi — of 
which the down or wool has a fineness almost equal 
to that of Merino wool, which nevertheless does not 
give it the value of the last, because of the abundant 
hair with which it is mixed, and from which it is 
impossible to separate it after it has been shorn." 

Mr. Moll omits a characteristic feature which is ob- 
served in the wools, particularly those of long fibre, 
in our third class; namely, an inequality in the diam- 
eter of the fibre, which often presents a long, spiry, 
coarse top with a fine, downy bottom, a peculiarity 
noticed by the Bradford wool-supply committee in the 
Iceland long wools. At the time of the official exam- 
ination of the wool samples collected for the use of 
the custom house officers, this characteristic of long 
carpet-wools was clearly pointed out by wool experts 
consulted by the examiners. 

At first glance it would seem easy to permanently 
classify wools simply by the races which produce 
them, as it would be naturally presumed that cer- 
tain races would invariably produce wool character- 
istic of their origin. For any determinate period 
this basis of classification would be correct enough, 



AND STOCK GROWER. 279 

and the present classification has clearly in view the 
present products of certain races. But for a truly 
scientific and permanent method, such a principle of 
classification is out of the question. Mr. Sanson, 
the most eminent of the modern writers of zootech- 
ny, has clearly shown that the specific characters of 
the species of sheep are established by the forms of 
the skeleton, and of the head in particular, which 
are absolutely fixed, and transmit themselves infalli- 
bly by generations between individuals of the same 
species. But he insists upon the ^absence of any 
value in the character of the fleece or muscular parts 
which surround the skeleton, as a means of deter- 
mining the characteristics of the types or races of 
sheep. He regards the fleeces and muscular forms 
of sheep as but secondary characters. These sec- 
ondary qualities, although they may be of the high- 
est importance in view of utility, and are the only 
ones capable of being developed by the art of culture, 
such as modes of habitation and alimentation. He 
shows, contrary to what is commonly believed, that 
the form and quality of wool cannot be of any avail 
for the determination of the types of sheep, and for 
the natural classification of their races ; but that the 
form and quality of the wool are dependent upon 
alimentation and shelter. Although, according to 
principles laid down by Mr. Sanson, the races now 
producing inferior carpet wools may be capable of 
being so improved by culture in their secondary 
qualities as to produce combing, or even clothing 
wools, it is equally true that unimproved, degenerate, 
and neglected races tend to deteriorate in the sec- 



280 THE WESTERN FARMER 

ondary qualities, such as those of flesh and fibre* 
The countries designated in the wool classification 
as producing the characteristic carpet- wools are those 
where no improvemeut has taken place, except by 
a partial introduction of the Merino blood, and no 
general term appears more appropriate to character- 
ize the animals producing these wools than that em- 
ployed by Mr. Moll, the "half-savage ovine races." 

The well-known expert, Mr. George W. Bond, in 
his paper on the " Custom-house Wool Samples," 
published in the first volume of the Bulletin of the 
National Association of Wool Manufacturers, has 
shown that the sheep of the countries designated as 
producing carpet-wools have descended from races 
quite distinct from those producing clothing or comb- 
ing-wools. The native South American, Cordova, 
and Valparaiso wool is shown to be produced hy de- 
scendants of " Chourros," or coarse-wooled sheep of 
Spain. The Chourros, as compared with the Meri- 
nos, are thus described : " They are larger, longer, 
and higher upon their legs ; they have a head smaller 
and more tapering; the legs and head are without 
wool ; they are of a robust habit; they are more easy 
to nourish; they bear hunger and the inclemency 
of the season better; the wool is straight and longer, 
much less fine, and much inferior in value." The 
native wools of Asia, including the East Indies, the 
north of Africa, and the most southern parts of 
Europe, are shown to have a common origin 
— the broad-tailed sheep, the most ancient race 
known, and which has remained almost without 
improvement, with the exception, perhaps, of the 



AND STOCK GROWER. 281 

Karamanian sheep referred to hereafter. The semi- 
savage character of this race is shown by the name 
apphed to it by Mr. Sanson, ''the barbarous type." 
That all these wools are justly characterized as 
carpet wools is domonstrated beyond question by 
the uses to which they are applied. The first vol- 
ume of the Bulletin of the National Association of 
Wool Manufacturers contains a statement of nearly 
two hundred importations of wools of the third 
class, into the port of Boston during the year 18d9, 
and with scarcely an exception the origin of these 
wools was in countries designated, in the wool tariff, 
as those from which "carpet and other similar 
wools" are "usually imported." 

The article introducing this statement was called 
forth by the assertion made by a wool-growers' asso- 
ciation, " that considerable quantities of wool, suit- 
able for clothing purposes, are admitted under third 
class duties, paying only three cents per pound." 
The Bulletin says : " Before introducing the state- 
ment of importations (third class wools) we would 
call attention to some other important facts tending 
to sustain our position, that ' carpet and similar 
wools,' imported into this country, are used exclu- 
sively for the purposes intended by the law. We are 
informed by the appraiser in Boston, Mr. Rice, and 
the agent of the mills hereafter referred to, that two 
of the carpet mills which are the largest consumers 
of the wools of the third class — one of them, the 
Lowell manufacturing company, consuming nearly 
one-fifth of the whole importation — at the request 
of the appraiser, Mr. Rice, had an inspection made by 



282 THE WESTERN FARMER 

experienced sorters, of the stocks of imported wools 
in the wool houses, to determine the amount of 
clothing wools they contained; and that this inspec- 
tion established the fact that these stocks did not 
contain more than one per cent of clothing wools — 
not enough to pay for sorting. In fact, all the wools 
bought by these two establishments are used exclu- 
sively for carpets, not a pound of the wools bought 
or imported as carpet wool having been used or sold 
for any other purposes. This fact is more remarkable 
and conclusive, since the Lowell manufacturing 
company alone imports and uses not less than six 
million pounds of wool per year, and the purchases 
are made often by full cargoes, and usually m large 
lots. The second fact is that the largest importers 
of South American wools — Hemmenway & Com- 
pany, of Boston — have given orders to their agents 
in South America to allow no mixture of clothing 
wools with the wools of the third class bought on 
their account. Finally, the increase of the carpet 
manufacture in this country fully accounts for the 
increase of the importations of these wools. The 
great increase is in the manufacture of ingrain 
carpets, used principally by consumers of moderate 
means, for no feature of American domestic life is 
more noticeable than the universal use of carpets, 
even in the humblest homes." 

Mr. Myers, in his effective speech in the House 
of Representatives, asserts that seven thousand per- 
sons are now employed in the city of Philadelphia 
in the manufacture of these carpets upon hand- 
looms, and that they use only imported wool. The 



AND STOCK GROWER. 283 

"Industrial Protector," published in Philadelphia, 
gives, from facts furnished by a former secretary of 
the Carjtet Weavers' Association of Great Britain, 
the statement that there are in Philadelphia between 
four thousand and five thousand hand-looms en- 
gaged on ingrain, Dutch, and^ Venetian carpets, 
about nine-tenths of which are working on ingrains ; 
and that the productive power in the United States 
is live thousand two hundred looms and eight hun- 
dred power-looms, equal to two thousand hand- 
looms, making a total production of seven thousand 
two hundred hand-looms ; while the total productive 
power of England is only two thousand one hundred 
hand-looms. With the vast consumption of wools 
of the third class, implied in these figures, there is 
no necessity of resorting to the theory of the con- 
sumption of these wools for clothing purposes, to 
account for their large importation. 

It is evident from the above statement that no loop- 
hole exists in the tariff on carpet wools for the admis- 
sion of the clothing and combing wools at lower 
duty than the law intends. We are now prepared to 
meet the inquiry why equally high protective duties 
are not due for these wools as for combing and 
clothing wools. The answer is : Ist. That the 
encouragement of the production of these semi- 
savage wools is neither desirable nor practicable, 
because it is more profitable to grow clothing or 
combing wools. The animals producing these wools 
will not be grown in populous districts, because 
they are not producers of mutton ; nor in pastoral 
regions, because they produce less than half the 



284 THE WESTERN FAKMER 

weight of wool of the Merino, owing to the less 
number of coarse-wool fibres on the same extent of 
surface. 2d. A high duty, not compensated by an 
increase of production, would check an important 
national industry, or, if a neutralizing duty were 
placed upon carpets, would tax the consumer to the 
full amount of the added duty, which is not the case 
when the production of wool is increased by the 
duty. Dr. Randall speaks authoritatively upon the 
question of the profitable production of carpet- 
wools in this country. Referring to a provision 
which had been suggested, that all kinds or classes 
of wool which furnish any clothing or combing 
wool, should pay the same duties as those two kinds, 
he says : — 

"What would be the consequence of such a tariff"? 
From the large amount of wool per yard necessarily 
used in carpets, the imposing of classes 1 and 2 duties 
would raise the prices of these fabrics to an oppressive 
pitch on consumers of small means. They now have 
to pay for them all they care to. We do not be- 
lieve in encouraging popular extravagance; but we 
do believe in placing no unnecessary obstacles in the 
way of the widest popular enjoyment of those com- 
forts and adornments which both indicate and pro- 
duce taste, culture, and all that goes to make up 
civilization. Legislators have no right to render 
such enjoyments less attainable by enhancing their 
cost without the most stringent reasons. If protect- 
ing duties on carpet wools were necessary to foster 
an existing and important national husbandry, which 
is essential to the public subsistence, to the general 



AND STOCK GROWER. 285 

agriculture of the country, and to the utilization of 
the vast portions of the public domain, as is the case 
with clothing and combing-wool husbandry, then 
those duties would be as justiiiable in one instance 
as in the^ other; and the same ultimate compensa- 
tion would be made to the consumer by the reduc- 
tion of prices caused by domestic competition. But 
duties equal to those on clothing and combing- wools 
will not now, nor probably for generations to come, 
lead to any extensive production of carpet wools in 
our country, because it would cost as much or more 
per pound to grow them as to grow the former, and 
the aggregate value of wool and mutton would be 
less. For our growers, then, to insist that carpet- 
wools should perpetually pay the same duties as the 
seriously competing wools, because a comparatively 
small amount can be and is used in clothing and 
combing fabrics, when, too, as already said, this use 
finds an equivalent in the use of the latter in carpets, 
would betray a selfishness so inordinate that it could 
not fail to disgust the great mass of our people." 

The statement that it is not desirable to introduce 
into this country the races producing carpet-wools 
demands some slight qualification. In sections of 
the country, like Texas and New Mexico, where the 
Mexican ewes, descended from the smaller and short- 
wooled Spanish Chourros, can be cheaply procured, 
it may be desirable to import them for crossing with 
Merino bucks, as the cheapest and most rapid means 
of obtaining abundant stock; but in that, the ulti- 
mate intent is not to obtain a carpet but a clothing 
wool. Special qualities, besides the fleece, in races 



286 THE WESTERN FARMER 

producing carpet-wools and special adaptation to 
peculiar districts, may recommend their introduc- 
tion. Such an exception appears to be the Karama- 
nian sheep of Asia Minor. The broad-tailed or bar- 
barous type of sheep found in the north of Africa, 
Syria, and Asia Minor, although producing in Asia 
Minor admirable carpet-wools, from which the Turk- 
ish rugs and carpets are fabricated, has always been 
regarded with contempt by European cultivators. 
A recent work, by the Rev. Dr. Van Lenness, enti- 
tled " Travels in little-known parts of Asia Minor," 
shows that the broad-tailed sheep is carefully culti- 
vated in some parts of Asia Minor, the best breed 
being raised in Karamania, a high and cold district 
in the southern portion of the peninsula. Speaking 
of a district in that region, he says: — 

" A good many flocks of the broad-tailed sheep 
are pastured here, and the breed raised in the dis- 
trict, as well as further south, is highly esteemed. 
It has been a matter of surprise to me that, while so 
much attention has been paid in Europe to every 
natural production of Asia Minor, the broad-tailed 
sheep has not only been neglected, but travellera 
have always spoken of it with disdain and ridicule. 
The poor, meek animal's burden — his ponderous 
tail — which, in the eyes of the natives, constitutes a 
most valuable prize, is spoken of as an unnatural 
excrescence. * * * I believe, however, that this crea- 
ture constitutes one of the most valuable possessions 
of the people of this land, and should greatly regret 
to see the breed exchanged for any other, not except- 
ing Merinos. True, the wool is not fine, and can- 



, AND STOCK GROWER. 287 

not be employed for the most delicate textures. It 
supplies, however, what is most needed by the com- 
mon people — a staple for manufacturing cheap, 
coarse, and warm garments, and excellent carpets. 
But the flesh of the animal is superior to any breed 
on the face of the earth. * * * The natives fully ap- 
preciate the economical value of the broad-tailed 
sheep, and it has nearly supplanted every other breed 
on the peninsula. Fine rams fetch a liigh price, and 
you see them kept in all parts of the country solely 
for breeding purposes. Nor is the broad and heavy 
tail the least valuable portion of the animal ; it is 
wholly composed of fat, which differs essentially 
from tallow or any other fat, except lard. Its deli- 
cacy enables it to take the place of butter for culi- 
nary purposes; and it is, in many respects, so far 
superior, while also decidedly cheaper, that, in most 
parts of the country, butter is not manufactured, be- 
cause it is not needed; milk is thus made into cheese 
only. Moreover, 'tail's fat,' as it is called, is as 
much an article of merchandise here as any other 
necessary or comfort of life; and a market unsup- 
plied with it would be poor indeed. It fetches a 
medium price between tallow and butter, and is al- 
most entirely used by the natives instead of the lat- 
ter. There can hardly be a doubt that this animal 
would succeed in Europe, for it is hardy, and the 
best breed is raised in Karamania, a high and cold 
district in the southern part of the peninsula." 

No suggestion bearing upon the production of 
raw material for oar industry or means for susten- 
ance is to be slighted, and the feasibility and advan- 



288 THE WESTERN FARMER 

tage of introducing, by the same agencies which 
have effected the importation of the Angora goat 
from Asia Minor, the Karamanian sheep for culture 
in the high and arid regions of the far interior, where 
they would unquestionably flourish, may possibly be 
found worthy, in the new demand for coarse wools, 
of the attention of our breeders. 

The space allotted to this article will not permit 
the discussion of the important practical questions of 
the preparation and putting up of wood for market; 
but one question connected with that preparation is 
too important to be passed by in silence; this is the 
feasibility of dispensing with the washing of sheep 
prior to shearing. The testimony presented in the 
discussions at the Syracuse convention shows that 
the requirement of this preliminary washing, made 
indispensable by the present demands of the major- 
ity of manufacturers, is regarded as a heavy burden 
upon the wool-grower. In many districts, as in 
Texas, this washing is impossible on account of the 
want of convenient streams of water. In others the 
process is unhealthful, both to animals and men, 
from the coldness of the stream-s; and everywhere, 
as ordinarily practiced, it is injurious to the sheep, 
from exposure to wet and cold, and the rough hand- 
ling to which they are subjected. Mr, Montgomery, 
the late president of the Ohio Wool Manufacturers' 
Association, expresses the objections of wool-growers 
to washing sheep as follows: — 

"It has been asked why we wish to sell our wool 
in an unwashed condition. One reason is, that we 
don't want to subject our sheep to the labor of car- 



AND STOCK GROWEK. 289 

Tying ten or twenty pounds of wool, soaked with 
water, and to consequent discomfort and illness, for 
a week, more or less, until it gets dry. We don't 
choose to dress them in wet clothes for that length of 
time. Another reason is, we want to shear our 
sheep early; and if we undertake to wash them we 
cannot do it, for the water is too cold, both for the 
sheep and the men, early in the season. A great 
many men in our western country cannot go into 
the water; one is subject to rheumatism, another to 
ague. A great proportion of our men are foreign- 
ers, raw men, not capable of handling sheep skilful- 
ly ; and then the cost of getting it done is more than 
the increased cost of getting it to market with the 
dirt still in the iieeces." 

Notwithstanding these sensible objections, the ma- 
jority of manufacturers, at present, prefer to pur- 
chase wools in the washed state. The principal rea- 
sons for th's preference is, that it having been the 
custom of the country to put the wools in market in 
a washed state, the manufacturers have been accus- 
tomed to form their judgment as to quality and val- 
ue upon wools in this condition. It is understood 
that the subject has been brought before the Nation- 
al Association of Wool Manufacturers, but that no 
disposition has been manifested to recommend a 
change in the usage of the country. Besides, it is 
manifest that no change, like that demanded by the 
wool-growers, could be brought about by resolutions 
of associations or conventions. It may, however, be 
effected by other influences now in operation. The 
value of solutions of the yolk of fleeces as a source 
25 



290 THE WESTERN FARMER AND STOCK GROW'ER. 

of potash, as a manure for the laud, or for use in the 
arts, }ias beon demonstrated in France, and is being 
better appreciated in this country. Methods are be- 
ing introduced in many establishments for preserv- 
ing and converting into manure the solutions of yolk 
obtained by washing the raw fleeces in cold water. 
Thus the unwashed fleeces have a new value to 
manufacturers which may gradually lead them to 
prefer purchasing the fleeces in the raw state. On 
the other hand, the intelligent wool-grower, seeing 
the value of those solutions, may be induced to wash 
his sheep at home, in such a manner that the wash- 
water, so rich in potash, may be distributed upon 
the laud as liquid manure. This question, upon 
which wool-growers are so sensitive, will be settled 
by natural causes, which will tend to bring about 
the result that is the most economical on the whole. 
In this, as in all cases, the interest is mutual between 
the manufacturers and the wool-growers. It is for 
the interest of the manufacturers that that course 
shall be pursued by the wool-growers which in the 
end will enable them, witli a fair proflt, to give to 
the rnanutactiirers tlie greatest quantity and the 
greatest value of wool at the lowest cost. The dis- 
tinction between these two bodies of producers is 
but nomimxl, for each is engaged upon different 
parts of a series of processes by which the raw pro- 
ducts of the soil are converted into the clothing of 
man. They have a controling interest in common 
— the permanent establishment of the woolen indus- 
try in all its branches, agricultural and manufactur- 
ing, upon American soil. 



ERRATA. 

Page 25, seventeenth line from top of page, read conditional for 
"unconditional." 

Page 78, first line, read $300, instead of "$30." 

Page 164, tenth line from bottom, read leaving, instead of " bearing." 

Page 170, fourth line from bottom, in place of Missouri River, read 
"Rocky Mountains." 

Page 173, second line from bottom, read who, instead of " that will," 
after the word " shepherd." 

Page 175, fifteenth line from bottom, read miner, instead of " mine." 



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